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Hello Friends of Shelly Creek Park:
Summer 2026 has arrived in all its glory. Recently I took a berry interesting tour of the park (photos arranged L to R):
Thimbleberry - Rubus parviflorus. The fruit comes off the stem with a hollow center, thus looking like a thimble. The leaves are fuzzy and shaped like maple leaves. Indigenous peoples dried the fruit and mixed them with other berries.
Red Huckleberry - Vaccinium parvifolium. These lacey shrubs often grow on stumps; they like decaying wood. The leaves are small and so are the bright red berries. Indigenous peoples ate red huckleberries and used them as bait in streams.
Black Raspberry/Whitebark Raspberry/Blackcap Raspberry - Rubus leucodermis. There are several common names for this shrub, but the Latin name is the same and refers to the whitish bloom on the stems. A source of food for Indigenous peoples and, mixed with other berries, a source of purple stain.
Trailing Blackberry - Rubus ursinus. This is the native blackberry. It can trail up to 5m along the ground and trip hikers. There are separate male and female plants, so not all plants bear fruit. The ripe, black berries are edible and delicious.
Red Elderberry - Sambucus racemosa. The leaves are made up of 5-7 leaflets. It looks like a leaf-cutter bee took a couple of "bites" out of the lower left leaf .Do NOT eat these berries raw!
A word about Himalayan blackberry
The native berries pictured above would not stand a chance if Himalayan blackberry brambles were allowed to overrun the park.
The City of Parksville Parks Department and the Friends of Shelly Creek Park strive to remove this invasive plant.
The fruits of the Himalayan blackberry usually ripen in August.
So if Himalayan blackberry bushes were the only berry source around, the native creatures looking for their usual food in June and July would be out of luck. My sources of information are Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar & MacKinnon, and the iNaturalist App.
Don't forget the Shelly Creek Park Project on iNaturalist. Any picture taken in the park and uploaded to iNaturalist will be in the Project.
Also, there is an updated edition of the above mentioned book. It reflects changing circumstances, such as climate: Plants of the Pacific Coast From Alaska to Oregon, including British Columbia and Washington,
Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon with new co-authors Jamie Fenneman and Leigh Joseph (Styawat). Any errors in identification are my own.
Enjoy our lovely park, Sue Wilson