Bunchberries are fruiting now. These plants have been thriving in the relatively cool and wet weather that we’ve been having here lately. Elsewhere, they’re in trouble. They’re reportedly endangered in Illinois, Indiana, and Maryland, and are listed as threatened in Iowa.
The plant’s fruits, which are tight clusters (“bunches”) of red berries, apparently are a good source of pectin. Native Americans in Maine reportedly ate the fruits raw, used them in puddings and sauces, dried them for winter use, and used an infusion of the plant’s leaves as a purging tea. Among other wildlife, bunchberry fruits are eaten by American Black Bears, Cottontails and Snowshoe Hares and Eastern Chipmunks.
This wildflower grows in mixed woods and bogs and is one of the few members of the dogwood family that is a creeping groundcover and not a tree or shrub. In some good-growing areas, Bunchberry will colonize a large area:
The plant (Cornus canadensis) reportedly also is commonly called Pudding Berry, Crackerberry, Dwarf Cornel, Dwarf Dogwood, Creeping Dogwood, Canadian Bunchberry, Dogwood Bunchberry, and Bunchberry Dogwood. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 21, 2023.)