A huckleberry by any other name: The story behind Westerners’ favorite wild berries

“Huckleberries are not technically huckleberries,” said Bernadine Strik, a professor of horticulture and a berry crops specialist at Oregon State University. “Common names can be misleading.”

Strik has been researching berries in the Pacific Northwest for more than three decades. Strik said while true huckleberries are related to blueberries, it’s an entirely different genus.

“What we commonly called huckleberry [in the West] are native blueberry species, and all the different huckleberries that we have here are genus Vaccinium which is the same genus as commercial blueberries,” Strik said. “And the same genus as other native blueberry species.”