Deerberry
Photograph by Fritz Flohr Reynolds
Scientific Description: Deerberry – Vaccinium stamineum – is a deciduous shrub native to the eastern half of North America in Hardiness Zones 5 through 9. It is in the Heath (Ericaceae) family, the same family as Rhododendron, and shares the Vaccinium Genus with cranberries and huckleberries. It grows to a height of 3 to 15 feet. It is drought tolerant once established and prefers partial shade. It needs acidic, well-drained soils and is often found on dry ridges and upland woodland areas. It produces small, bell-shaped flowers in the spring that eventually mature into black-purple berries that are fully ripe in late summer to early autumn.
While this species is considered to have no serious insect or disease problems, it is occasionally susceptible to various fungal diseases, including stem blight, root rot, and anthracnose. It is also susceptible to a few insect species including stem borers, scale, tent caterpillars, and fall webworms.
Habitat Value: Deerberry flowers provide nectar for many insect species, including many bee species, as well as various butterfly species. To say this species attracts many pollinators would be an understatement!
The fruit are not only consumed by humans (although they are very tart), but also by songbirds, small mammals, white-tail deer, wild turkey, chipmunks, opossum, raccoon, mice, and American black bear. In addition, since many insects visit the flowers for pollen, many bird and other animals visit these shrubs to eat the insects.
Landscape Value: By Matt Whitaker of WMWA Landscape Architects
Deerberry is best used for naturalizing or as a background/screening shrub in your garden. The foliage can vary but is often a rich glaucous blue-green that turns to a red to maroon late in the fall or early winter here. It has white bell-shaped flowers that show up in April and May and are showier than some of our other native blueberries. The dense low branches screen well when layered with other shrubs, and, if you can beat the wildlife to them, the berries make excellent ice creams or pies with their intense but tart flavor.
Like all Vaccinium and Ericaceous plants, deerberry requires acidic (pH = 4 to 6.5) soils for success. Most of our native southeastern soils are acidic, but years of over liming lawns or use of limestone gravel may have altered your yards. If planting any of our acid lover natives (hollies, Rhododendron, azaleas, blueberries, etc.), a soil test is worth the time and minimal cost. Always use elemental sulfur (available at most hardware/garden centers) to lower your pH, and never use aluminum sulfate. The former is slower but longer acting, the latter is fast acting but brief and detrimental to most of our natives and food crops.
