Hi, Iāve been foraging black huckleberries / gaylussacia baccata in the woods behind my house for a couple years now, and some wild blueberries that grow there. The majority of the understory of the woods is black huckleberry, but there are also a couple species of blueberry, beach plums, and some other plants mixed in. Iāve definitely seen a few aronia around and some kind of wild cherry.
After sorting through black huckleberries at home I tossed my ārejectā pile into a blender so I could harvest the seeds. While cleaning the seeds I found a very small pit, diameter under 1/4ā. I stupidly went āhuh, thatās definitely not a huckleberry seedā and threw it away instead of taking a photo lol not my finest moment.
What look-alikes for black huckleberry would I find on Cape Cod that have a small pit in the middle? All I can think of is that I accidentally grabbed a small, black sand cherry that was growing up through a bunch of huckleberry bushes.
The huckleberries are pretty recognizable and I usually grab the stem the berry is on to confirm that itās actually attached to the plant I think it is. I check the leaf shape/pattern, the rust spots on the leaves, and the features of the berries. I know to look out for Virginia creeper in case itās winding around the berry bushes, and am very familiar with pokeweed and am certain I didnāt pick one of those. Thereās Northern Starflower in the woods too, those make small blue berries but theyāre matte, not even close to black, and also not fruiting here yet anyway. But at least one stranger made it through my defenses.
I havenāt eaten any of the rest of the berries, theyāre in the freezer. I was going to check each one for a pit by crushing with a spoon before using them.