Gaylussacia frondosa (L.) Torr. & A. Gray ex Torr.
Blue huckleberry, dangleberry, hairy dangleberry
Blue huckleberry is a North American native plant. I had to laugh when I first encountered another of its common names: dangleberry. That’s the feature I immediately noticed when I first saw the plants, berries hanging on long stems instead of closely clustered like most of the related species.
Plants: Shrubs are deciduous, heavily branched, and up to 6½′ (2 m) in height.
Leaves: Up to 2½ ⨉ 1¼″ (7 ⨉ 3.5 cm), and hairy and glandular on the leaf bottoms.
Flowers: Greenish-white, bell-shaped, in loose racemes 1½–3″ (3.8–7.6 cm) long. Each flower is on a threadlike, pendulous pedicel ¼–1″ (8.5–25 mm) long.
Fruits: ¼″ (8 mm) in diameter, usually blue, but may be black or even white.
Habitats: Wooded areas near bogs and swamps; acidic soils.
This Gaylussacia and Vaccinium comparision chart compares these closely related genera, both of which contain plants called huckleberries.
Edibility: Berries are edible. They are sweet and tasty, similar in taste to blueberries.
Online References:
Decachaena frondosa (L.) Torr. & A. Gray
8/17/2013 · Hopkinton State Park, Hopkinton, Massachusetts · ≈ 10 × 7″ (25 × 16 cm) 
ID is uncertain 
8/17/2013 · Hopkinton State Park, Hopkinton, Massachusetts · ≈ 8 × 6″ (20 × 14 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/17/2013 · Hopkinton State Park, Hopkinton, Massachusetts · ≈ 5 × 8″ (12 × 19 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/17/2013 · Hopkinton State Park, Hopkinton, Massachusetts · ≈ 7 × 11″ (18 × 28 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/17/2013 · Hopkinton State Park, Hopkinton, Massachusetts · ≈ 8 × 6″ (20 × 14 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/17/2013 · Hopkinton State Park, Hopkinton, Massachusetts · ≈ 11 × 7″ (28 × 18 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/2/2010 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Rte. 130, Hollis, New Hampshire · ≈ 9 × 6″ (23 × 15 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/17/2013 · Hopkinton State Park, Hopkinton, Massachusetts · ≈ 9 × 6″ (23 × 16 cm) ID is uncertain 
8/2/2010 · Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Rte. 130, Hollis, New Hampshire · ≈ 12 × 8″ (31 × 20 cm) ID is uncertain 
| Kingdom | Plantae | Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin) |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients |
| Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms |
| Class | Magnoliopsida | Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves |
| Subclass | Asteridae | A large class that encompasses asters |
| Order | Ericales | Tea, persimmon, blueberry, Brazil nut, azalea, many others |
| Family | Ericaceae | Heath or heather family |
| Genus | Gaylussacia | For chemist and physicist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac |
| Species | frondosa | “Leafy,” probably a reference to the relatively large leaves |
Gaylussacia frondosa description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.
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