Highbush cranberry
Viburnum opulus var. americanum
Not a cranberry (Vaccinium). A viburnum with tart red fruit used as a cranberry stand-in after cooking and seeding. Identify vs European Guelder rose.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
Also called: American cranberrybush, Viburnum trilobum
What it is
Not a cranberry (Vaccinium). A viburnum with tart red fruit used as a cranberry stand-in after cooking and seeding. Identify vs European Guelder rose.
Edible portions
- cooked fruit
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 2–7
- Light. Sun to part shade
- Soil. Moist
- Planting. Native shrub. Fruit hangs into winter.
- Harvest. After frost often; very tart raw.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Cooked sauce, straining seeds
Nutrition and compounds
- Vitamins (qualitative, well-known associations). vitamin C — not milligram values.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.