Ripe salal berries
Camp Westwind Session 2 is underway, and has been full of adventuring into the woods and berry picking. The berries that we pick the most are thimbleberries, salmonberries, salal berries, and blackberries. To help campers identify berries better, we have some tricks you might want to know!
- To identify a thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), first recognize how red they are. They’re called ‘thimbleberry’ because the berry looks like a thimble. Fun fact about thimble berry’s large and soft leaves: they’re nature’s toilet paper!
- To identify a salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), notice the light orange color. Sometimes they darken and look like raspberries. What really gives them away is their leaves: if you pull back the top leaf, the remaining leaves look like the wings of a butterfly!
- To identify salal berries (Gaultheria shallon), you’ll find them in a row on a low growing shrub (salal – found throughout Westwind). If you pinch the sides of the berry, it folds into a flower-looking shape.
- To identify a blackberry (Rubus armeniacus), see that their flowers are white and that the plant has five leaves. Take caution – these blackberries (as opposed to the native variety, Rubus ursinus) have mighty thorns. But they are also the most prolific and are ripe for gourmet berry eating right now!
Salmonberries, red and orange