Edible Wild Berries Guide: How to Identify Edible Wild Berries

Wild berries include any type of berry that grows naturally in the wild. There are many different types of wild berries that you may encounter on a foraging trip, some of which you can eat. However, finding edible berries in the wild does not mean that the rest of the plant is edible, or that every part of the fruit is either. Some edible wild berries need to be cooked before you eat them, and others only have edible fruit and not edible seeds or leaves.

Certain wild berries have toxic seeds and fruit and should never be consumed for fear of them causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, coma, and death. Before you go foraging for wild foods, you want to have a sense of how to identify which berries are the most likely to be edible.

Berries are a good source of carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamins. Here are a few guidelines for evaluating whether or not you can eat the berries you’ve found in the wild. Note that before you eat any edible wild foods, you should always perform an edibility test.

• Clustered skin is a good sign. Aggregate berries are made up of tightly packed clusters, like raspberries, salmonberries, thimbleberries, and mulberries. They have bumpy skin made up of many particles. These types of berries are ninety-nine percent edible worldwide and usually won’t require an edibility test (though it never hurts to check).
• Blue, black, and purple skin is a good sign. Black, purple, and blue-skinned berries have a ninety percent chance of being edible. One notable exception to this rule is the nightshade berry, which looks deceptively similar to a blueberry, but is toxic. You should strongly consider an edibility test before consuming berries that have blue, black, or purple skin.
• Orange and red is 50/50. Orange and red berries are more likely to be harmful than dark-skinned berries. These berries have a fifty-fifty chance of being edible, so you always want to perform an edibility test before consuming them.
• Avoid green, white, and yellow berries. These berries are the most likely to be poisonous and should be avoided when possible. With only ten percent edibility, these berries have the highest risk for toxicity.

There are plenty of edible wild fruits you can find outdoors. Always perform an edibility test before consuming any berries you’ve foraged in the wild. However, with the right knowledge and preparation, you can find plenty of tasty, safe berries to eat during your time in the wilderness. Here are some wildberry varieties that are safe to eat.

1. 1. Blackberries: Blackberries grow in clusters with very dark purple—nearly black—skin. Like many berries, wild blackberries have lookalikes, such as dewberries, which resemble blackberries in both appearance and taste. Dewberries are also edible.
2. 2. Blueberries: Wild blueberries grow natively in North America in rocky hills and fields, and rarely need to be planted. You can recognize blueberries by their slightly spiky crowns, and they usually grow on woody stems. These small, round, dark blue–colored berries range from sweet to tart.
3. 3. Cloudberries: Cloudberries have a similar aggregate skin to the blackberry, but they have more of an amber-orange color. These juicy berries taste like a cross between red raspberries and redcurrants.
4. 4. Cranberries: Cranberries grow in bogs and are relatively easy to identify when you come across them. Cranberries have a bitter-tart flavor that is delicious both cooked and raw.
5. 5. Elderberries: These dark purple and blue berries from the Sambucus plant have a sweet and tart taste, but you need to cook them before consuming them (eating the raw berries may cause stomach discomfort). However, you should never consume the raw, green versions of these berries.
6. 6. Gooseberries: Native to North America, Europe, and Asia, these berries start off green and tart (when they should be cooked), and slowly transition into sweeter, orange, and red berries that can be eaten raw. They have a similar appearance to grapes, and you may even be able to see the veins of the fruit beneath the skin. Gooseberry shrubs have thorns and scalloped-edged leaves, with the berries growing in a line underneath the branches.
7. 7. Huckleberries: Also known as bilberries or whortleberries, huckleberries grow in forests and bogs and are rich in antioxidants. They are round, blue or black berries that look very similar to blueberries and may have a stem poking out of the top. They typically grow on wood-stemmed bushes.
8. 8. Raspberries: Red clustering wild raspberries grow on bushes that have thorns and white flowers (that eventually blossom into the fruit), and can usually be found around in the early summer. You can recognize them in the wild by their hollow insides and aggregate, bumpy skin.
9. 9. Serviceberries: Serviceberries (sometimes referred to as the Juneberry fruit or Saskatoon berries) grow on the serviceberry tree, a deciduous shrub (or small tree) belonging to the Rosaceae family. Serviceberry trees have gray bark and green leaves that change during the fall and produce early spring flowers.
10. 10. Wild strawberries: Strawberries can be found in the wild, usually in dry locations or open fields. Strawberries have a recognizable tapered shape, with red skin that is covered in tiny seeds. Make sure to eat your strawberries when they are bright red and ripe, without any dark spots.

While there are plenty of delicious, ripe berries you can turn to if your life depends on it, there are also plenty of berries you should never ingest. Please note that this list is not an exhaustive list of all of the poisonous wild berries.

1. 1. Baneberries: Baneberries are part of the buttercup family and grow on bushy plants with fuzzy, serrated leaves. These round, red berries resemble cranberries, but they are highly poisonous if you eat them. Baneberries can cause immediate cardiac effects if ingested. You can also find these berries in the wild in a white variety, growing on thicker stems.
2. 2. Bittersweet nightshade: Another poisonous berry, these round, bright red fruits have been known to cause illness and death in livestock and, in rare cases, children. You can identify these plants by the curved, light purple flowers that have conical yellow stamens.
3. 3. Holly berries: These round, red berries are a staple of Christmas decor, but are highly poisonous to both animals and people if ingested. They are small, shiny, red berries that grow on woody stems that bear shiny, spiky green leaves.
4. 4. Horsenettle fruit: Horsenettle berries are some of the most toxic berries you can eat. The entire plant is poisonous, with lower levels of the toxin appearing in unripe berries, and gradually increasing as they mature (usually in the fall). Also a nightshade plant, these round berries start green (they look like tiny watermelons) and transition to a golden yellow. They grow in flowering clumps similar to tomatoes.
5. 5. Ivy berries: These types of berries grow on poison ivy and usually have a light green to white color. You should avoid both the leaves of the plant and the berries. You can identify poison ivy by its tiny, yellow-green flower clusters, and deep reddish-brown leaves that turn green in the summer. The flowers return to their original color in the fall.
6. 6. Mistletoe berries: Mistletoe plants produce white, pink, or red berries containing a poison known as phoratoxin, which can cause severe organ damage to your kidneys, stomach, or heart. You can recognize mistletoe by its stubby stems and leathery, oval leaves.
7. 7. Nightshade: Nightshades are a class of fruit closely resembling blueberries. They grow on thick, light green stems with jagged leaves, but you can distinguish them from blueberries by nightshade’s lack of a crown. If you use an edibility test and the berries taste bitter or woody, then they are not safe for consumption.
8. 8. Pokeweed berries: Also known as pokeberries, these purple berries are extremely toxic, and only get more toxic as they mature. Pokeweed plants are erect and can grow between four and twelve feet tall, and their berries grow in a long cluster on fuschia-red stems.
9. 9. Virginia creeper berries: This flowering vine, which is part of the grape family, produces fruits with high amounts of oxalic acid, which can be damaging to the kidneys and potentially fatal for humans and dogs. These berries have a saturated blue color, making them resemble blueberries. However, they grow on vibrant, red vines, with serrated green leaves instead of woody stems like blueberries.
10. 10. Yew berries: Yew berries look relatively similar to olives with their circular interior openings, but they are not safe to eat. You can identify these bright red berries by the reddish-brown vines they grow on. They also have green leaves that resemble pine needles.

Certain outdoor activities carry an elevated risk of serious injury. Wilderness scenarios require extensive survival gear, including but not limited to food, water, maps, protective clothing, and first aid, along with mental and physical fortitude. This article is for educational and informational purposes, and is not a substitute for hard skills and expertise.

Prepare for any outdoor journey by grabbing a MasterClass Annual Membership and committing Jessie Krebs’s wilderness survival course to memory. As a former United States Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape instructor, Jessie can teach you everything you need to know about packing for a trip (neon is the new black), purifying water, foraging (crickets: the other white meat), starting a fire, and signaling for help (forget SOS).