Tag: Vaccinium myrtillus

Bilberry has been used for centuries for its medicinal properties, yet concerns about its safety for the liver persist. Despite widespread use in supplements, scientific evidence suggests that bilberry fruit is not hard on the liver and may even offer protective benefits.

According to the Woodland Trust, bilberry is known by several common names across different regions, including blaeberry, whortleberry, and wimberry. This wide array of monikers reflects its widespread native growth across northern Europe and parts of Asia and North America. Understanding the various names for bilberry is essential for foragers, botanists, and food enthusiasts who might encounter this fruit under different titles.

Though often mistaken for blueberries, bilberries have a variety of regional and historical names reflecting their native European and Asian habitats. This rich linguistic heritage reveals the wild, locally foraged nature of this nutritious fruit across different cultures and upland areas where it is commonly found.

Bilberries, known scientifically as *Vaccinium myrtillus*, are native to both northern Europe and parts of North America. While often confused with the more commercially popular American blueberry, bilberries can be found growing wild in cooler, mountainous regions of the United States and Canada. This native presence means that, yes, bilberries do grow in the US, but typically not in the large cultivated farms associated with their American cousins.

Bilberries, the plant species to which wimberries belong, have been used in traditional European medicine for nearly 1,000 years. A wimberry fruit is simply a regional English name for the common European bilberry (*Vaccinium myrtillus*), a small, dark, wild berry known for its intensely rich and tart flavor. This berry grows on low bushes in heathland and moorland areas, primarily across northern Europe and the UK.

The whinberry, or bilberry (*Vaccinium myrtillus*), contains up to four times more antioxidants, particularly anthocyanins, than its American cultivated blueberry counterpart. This small, dark blue fruit grows wild across European heaths and woodlands and is known for its intense, flavorful taste that stains the hands and mouth a deep purple.

Over 80% of Swedish land is covered by forest, providing a vast natural habitat for wild berries. It is within these expansive woodlands that the famed Nordic blueberries grow, which are actually a different species known as bilberries. Unlike cultivated blueberries, these wild fruits are smaller, with a vibrant dark flesh, and are harvested from pristine northern forests.