British Columbia Day, August 6th, 2007

Because there is no national holiday to celebrate gardening (how can this be?), I've decided to post garden or plant-related themes related to the Canadian stat holidays.

Today was British Columbia (BC) Day. Here are links to photos of edible berries of coastal BC:

Alaskan blueberry Vaccinium alaskaense

Dwarf blueberry Vaccinium caespitosum

Bog cranberry Oxycoccus oxycoccos

Salmonberry Rubus spectabilis

Black raspberry Rubus leucodermis

Thimbleberry Rubus parviflorus

Himalayan blackberry Rubus discolor

Trailing blackberry Rubus ursinus

Saskatoon Amelanchier alnifolia

To learn more about how these plants were traditionally used by the aboriginal peoples as well as how to identify the plants in the wild, I highly recommend the field guide Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, BC and Alaska (2004) or the original edition (I have this one), Plants of Coastal British Columbia including Washington, Oregon & Alaska (1994).