Vaccinium tenellum

Small black blueberry is a low, delicate native of the sandy soils and pine barrens of the Southeastern coastal plain, a slender member of the heath family long gathered from the wild for its fruit. The species name tenellum means dainty or tender, a fair description of the fine stems and small leaves, and the common name points to the little dark berries that ripen almost black in late summer.

A tidy, low, deciduous shrub rarely more than knee to waist high, small black blueberry carries small, glossy green leaves that turn red to deep purple in fall, and in mid to late spring hangs clusters of small, bell-shaped, white to light-pink flowers that draw bees and other pollinators. The plant makes an easy, well-behaved presence at the front of a native bed.

The berries that follow are small, round, and smooth, darker and daintier than a commercial blueberry but sweet with a pleasant tang, good eaten fresh or cooked into jams, jellies, and pies. Across the South the fruit has been gathered from the wild for generations, and the ripe berries feed birds and small mammals as readily as people.

Grow small black blueberry in sandy, acid, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade, with a little afternoon shade welcome where summers are fierce. Use the low shrub in a native or pollinator planting, an edible landscape, or a naturalized sandy bed, and pair with other pineland natives. Photo courtesy of R.W. Smith.