https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/240849384
On a hike on the Perseverance Trail I came across some blueberry bushes. After doing some research on the history of them I discovered that the blueberry species are the most dominant Alaskan shrub. They can be found high up in the mountains, along trails, or at sea level. The shrubs' height can range from four inches to thirteen inches high! Blueberries are pollinated by bees and once they begin to blossom it will take about forty to sixty days for it to ripen. As it begins to ripen the blueberries go through color phases! From bright green to green white to greenish pink and finally, as we all know it must be a dark hue of blue before we eat them because this tells us when it is ready to be eaten aka ripe! For these to populate their surrounding area, cross pollination has to occur meaning each blueberry shrub is a little different. So the next time you are going berry picking you might want to look a little closer at their colors and characteristics! Furthermore, here in Alaska they play an important role to not only the Indigenous community but to the locals as well. Throughout history they would typically be picked and dried either for consumption, decoration, or other. They could also be eaten, or used as dyes for wool and fibers. Personally I usually just pick them to eat right off the bush, bake desserts with, decorate dishes with, or use them for watercolor paintings!
Works Cited:
sources: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/blueberries#:~:text=Flowering%20occurs%20in%20early%20spring,and%20also%20used%20for%20baking.
Comments
Lovely Journal entry, Ela, on a -- in my opinion! -- tasty shrub in Alaska!
Please note that for this college class we won't use Wikipedia as a source. You'll of course fine tune your resources over the course of this semester, but some sources to check out for future iNaturalist research are ADF&G's section on animals (https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=animals.main), or the USDA website has an index where you can look for different plants (https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/index.php), and even iNaturalist itself. Of course, there are many other resources, as well, and the Egan Library online (https://uas.alaska.edu/library/index.html) is one of the best places to start!
Best,
Professor Brooke
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