Why the huckleberry shrub grows well in Montana

HELENA – them, you like them. Huckleberries!

The cornerstone of each reward store from Eureka to Ekalaka is a Montana staple for good causes. And people causes sound finest coming from an precise botanist.

“They develop within the cooler mountains of Montana, all of our mountainous areas, however in addition they develop the place the soil is extra acidic, they’re related to our forest openings and within the under-story of the forest the place the soils are usually extra acidic from the pines and the spruces and the furs,” Program Montana Pure Heritage Program Botanist Andrea Pipp advised MTN. “They’re additionally related to volcanic ash, can be a element of their soil.

The candy berries even have a novel relationship with hearth. Which fits the shrub very nicely out right here.

“So huckleberries developed with hearth and so they want low to reasonable severity sorts of fires and so they simply re-sprout after a hearth particularly a low to reasonable severity hearth, simply re-sprout,” mentioned Pipp.

All that flush of vitamins that the hearth releases helps not solely them re-sprout and develop however they really turn out to be extra productive.

Based on Pipp, the berries are additionally very troublesome to develop in a extra “tame” setting, including an additional quantity of Montana-flavored journey to foraging the fruit.

Mix all that with the huge quantity of area huckleberries must develop right here – and it’s not a shock that it’s the unofficial berry of Montana.

However bear in mind it’s not simply us who love huckleberries. The candy deal with can be a staple of varied birds and… bears. So don’t over-pick whenever you discover a good cache of berries and be bear conscious.

Take note of your environment, make noise, go in teams in the event you can and convey bear spray.