Kinnikinnik

Bearberry (Kinnikinnik) is a ground cover plant with shiny, dark green, alternating leaves that have rounded tips. Red to pink berries ripen in late summer and remain on the bush throughout the winter. You can harvest the leaves in the summer for a tobacco substitute.

Harvested berries in the fall can be used for a caffeine-free coffee substitute, grind after drying. Berries that are harvested in spring and summer can be used as a tea as well, tea made from these leaves is a diuretic for kidney stones and urinary tract infections also known to “alleged[ly] control several sexually transmitted diseases” and just as the name states bears also in fact do eat these berries (wildflower.org).

This plant can grow practically anywhere! It can be found in many different provinces and territories in Canada and it can be seen in a variety of elevations. The nectar and berries that Bearberry gives attracts many kinds of wildlife

“Bearberry is a great wildlife plant. It provides nectar, which has been known to attract butterfly caterpillars, butterflies and hummingbirds. Its leaves are eaten by many mammals including deer, elk, bighorn sheep and moose, and it acts as a larval food plant for some butterfly species. Bearberry fruit is eaten by birds such as thrushes, wrens, grouse, robins and waxwings. Other animals that use the fruit as a winter food source are bears, deer and small mammals” (Canadian Wildlife federation 2020). BM