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Cascade bilberry Ericaceae Vaccinium deliciosum Piper Listen to the Latin Print a QR link to this factsheet symbol: VADE
Leaf: Alternate, simple, deciduous, elliptical, ovate, or obovate, to 2 inches long base is wedge-shaped; margins finely toothed (often only on upper 2/3 of blade); pale blue-green above and waxy below, red to purple in the fall.
Flower: Perfect, small (1/4 inch long); solitary; nodding; pinkish; corolla fused and nearly round; borne singly in leaf axils; appear in late spring.
Fruit: Small (1/4 to 1/2 inch diameter) blue berries, with waxy bloom; ripen in late summer, delicious.
Twig: Red-green and somewhat angled.
Bark: Gray and shreddy.
Form: A low shrub to 1 1/2 feet tall; may form dense mats because of rhizomatous spreading and stems that readily root where they touch the ground.
 Looks like: dwarf bilberry - big huckleberry - velvet-leaf blueberry - ovalleaf huckleberry

Cascade bilberry leaf image
Cascade bilberry flower image
Cascade bilberry fruit image
Cascade bilberry twig image
Cascade bilberry bark image
Cascade bilberry form image
Cascade bilberry map image

Additional Range Information: Vaccinium deliciosum is native to North America. Range may be expanded by planting. Download the full-size PDF map.
External Links: USDA Plants Database
All material 2025 Virginia Tech Dept. of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation; Photos and text by: John Seiler, Edward Jensen, Alex Niemiera, and John Peterson; Silvics reprinted from Ag Handbook 654; range map source information