This plant grows on the border of woods in Lexington by my yard, it hasn’t grown above chest height and has white flowers that will bear fruit resembling a blue berry in June. It looks like a shrub and grows in partial shade
Hi Chase,
nice images! Your shrub is called deerberry, Vaccinium stamineum. It is in the same genus as blueberry, and technically the berries are edible, but it has been my experience that they are not very good tasting. Some may disagree with me. They are about the same size as Ashe’s [rabbit eye] blueberry – the preferred edible cultivated blueberry in SC, but that plant is normally taller. However, I have seen deerberry growing to over 6 feet tall – there are many varieties – some have white leaf undersides, some do not. This one is widespread and fairly common.
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Steve Hill, Botanist, SCNPS