Skip to content
Orvik Orvik
Free tools
Identification keys and calculators
Compare apps
Real prices, and which are free
 Download Orvik Free
Theme

Food & foraging

What berry is this, and can you eat it?

Berry colour is close to useless on its own: there are edible black berries and lethal black berries, edible red berries and lethal red berries. What identifies a berry is the plant carrying it — how it grows, what the leaves are, whether the fruit is in a cluster or single. Filter on those, and read the toxic flag before anything else.

Entries 30Filters 5 Updated 2026-09-04 Cost Free, no account

Never eat a wild berry on the strength of a web page. This key narrows possibilities; it does not confirm anything. Several plants here can kill an adult from a small handful, and two of them — pokeweed and baneberry — grow in gardens and along paths where children play. Positive identification means the whole plant, in flower and in fruit, checked against a regional field guide or by someone who knows the local flora. If a child has eaten an unknown berry, call poison control now: (800) 222-1222 in the US, 111 in the UK.

Narrow it down

Edibility
Colour
What it grows on
How the fruit sits
Where

Showing all 30 berries

  1. Blackberry

    Rubus fruticosus and allies

    An aggregate of glossy black beads that keeps its white core when picked, on an arching thorny cane with palmate leaves of three to five toothed leaflets.

    Size
    Fruit 1–2.5 cm
    Where
    North America, Europe and everywhere temperate.
    Confused with
    Nothing dangerous. There is no poisonous look-alike for a true blackberry in North America or Europe, which is why it is the standard first forage.

    In the record 255,561 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jul · most distinctive in February · mostly from France check on GBIF

  2. Raspberry and black raspberry

    Rubus idaeus, R. occidentalis

    The same beaded aggregate as a blackberry but it pulls off the core hollow, like a thimble. Canes are bristly rather than thorny, often with a white bloom.

    Size
    Fruit 1–2 cm
    Where
    Temperate North America, Europe and Asia.

    In the record 799,549 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  3. Wild strawberry

    Fragaria vesca, F. virginiana

    A miniature strawberry with seeds on the outside, on a low plant with three toothed leaflets and white five-petalled flowers, spreading by runners.

    Size
    Fruit 1–2 cm
    Where
    Across the northern hemisphere.
    Confused with
    Mock strawberry (Potentilla indica), which has yellow flowers and an upward-pointing tasteless fruit. Harmless but not worth picking.

    In the record 798,077 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in April · mostly from France check on GBIF

  4. Blueberry and huckleberry

    Vaccinium species

    Round blue fruit with a waxy bloom and a distinct five-pointed crown at the far end, on a twiggy shrub with small oval leaves. The crown is the confirmation.

    Size
    Fruit 5–12 mm
    Where
    Acid soils across North America and northern Europe.

    In the record 2,513,864 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from Sweden check on GBIF

    Which blueberries taste best

  5. Elderberry

    Handle with care

    Sambucus canadensis, S. nigra

    Enormous flat-topped clusters of tiny purple-black berries on red-purple stalks, over compound leaves of five to eleven toothed leaflets. The stems are pithy and hollow-cored.

    Size
    Fruit 4–6 mm, clusters 15–25 cm across
    Where
    North America and Europe, on damp disturbed ground.
    Confused with
    Water hemlock and pokeweed both carry clustered dark fruit on reddish stems. Elder has woody stems and opposite compound leaves; pokeweed is a soft herb with alternate simple leaves.
    Risk
    Ripe cooked fruit is a traditional food. Raw berries, and all leaves, stems and roots, contain cyanogenic glycosides and cause vomiting and diarrhoea. Red elderberry is more toxic than black and its seeds should not be eaten at all.

    In the record 50,560 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

    What elderberries are

  6. Serviceberry

    Amelanchier species

    Small purple pomes ripening from red, each with a five-pointed crown like a blueberry, on a small tree with smooth grey bark and oval finely toothed leaves. Ripens in June, before almost anything else.

    Size
    Fruit 6–10 mm
    Where
    North America and, as an ornamental, worldwide.

    In the record 293,125 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jun · most distinctive in April · mostly from France check on GBIF

  7. Mulberry

    Handle with care

    Morus species

    A long beaded aggregate like a stretched blackberry, on a tree whose leaves come in three shapes — plain, mitten and glove — and bleed milky sap when torn.

    Size
    Fruit 2–3 cm
    Where
    Naturalised across North America and Europe.
    Risk
    Ripe fruit is fine. Unripe white fruit and the milky sap cause stomach upset and, in quantity, hallucination.
    Identifying mulberry trees

  8. Wild grape

    Handle with care

    Vitis species

    Hanging bunches of round dark fruit on a woody climber with forked tendrils, shredding bark and large lobed leaves. Cut a berry: grapes have two to four pear-shaped seeds.

    Size
    Fruit 6–15 mm
    Where
    North America and Europe.
    Risk
    Edible, but Canada moonseed is a deadly look-alike growing in the same hedgerows. Moonseed has a single flat crescent-shaped seed, no tendrils, and unlobed leaves attached inside the leaf edge rather than at the notch. Check a seed before eating any wild grape.

    In the record 226,757 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jul · most distinctive in April · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  9. Canada moonseed

    Can injure you

    Menispermum canadense

    A grape mimic: dark bunches on a twining vine, but with <strong>no tendrils</strong>, leaves whose stalk attaches inside the blade rather than at the edge, and a single flat crescent-moon seed inside each fruit.

    Size
    Fruit 8–10 mm
    Where
    Eastern and central North America.
    Risk
    Contains dauricine. Convulsions and death have followed from eating a handful mistaken for grapes. This is the most consequential berry confusion in eastern North America.

    In the record 11,746 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jun · most distinctive in May · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  10. Pokeweed

    Can injure you

    Phytolacca americana

    A tall soft herb to three metres with a smooth magenta stem, big alternate simple leaves, and hanging spikes of glossy purple-black berries that stain everything crimson.

    Size
    Fruit 8–12 mm on spikes 10–20 cm
    Where
    Eastern and central North America; naturalised in Europe.
    Risk
    All parts are toxic and the root is the worst. A few berries cause severe vomiting and diarrhoea in a child; the folk tradition of eating boiled young shoots requires multiple changes of water and is not a beginner practice.

    In the record 195,553 georeferenced records · half of them Jul–Sep · most distinctive in October · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  11. Deadly nightshade

    Can injure you

    Atropa belladonna

    Single glossy black berries the size of a cherry, each sitting in a green five-pointed star of sepals, on a bushy plant with dull purple bell flowers.

    Size
    Fruit 15–20 mm
    Where
    Europe, western Asia; scattered escapes in North America.
    Risk
    Atropine and scopolamine. Two to five berries can kill a child. Symptoms are dilated pupils, dry mouth, flushed skin, confusion and hallucination. A genuine emergency.

    In the record 57,953 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in June · mostly from Germany check on GBIF

    Nightshade toxicity

  12. Black nightshade

    Can injure you

    Solanum nigrum and allies

    Small drooping clusters of dull black berries on a low branching weed with white star-shaped flowers and a protruding yellow cone of anthers.

    Size
    Fruit 6–10 mm
    Where
    Worldwide on disturbed ground.
    Risk
    Solanine, concentrated in unripe green fruit and foliage. Some populations are eaten as a cooked vegetable in parts of Africa and India, which is why the literature is confusing — treat the wild plant as toxic.

    In the record 363,094 georeferenced records · half of them Jul–Sep · most distinctive in November · mostly from France check on GBIF

  13. Bittersweet nightshade

    Can injure you

    Solanum dulcamara

    Clusters of translucent egg-shaped red berries on a scrambling vine with purple flowers whose reflexed petals expose a yellow beak of anthers. Arrow-shaped leaves with two basal lobes.

    Size
    Fruit 8–12 mm
    Where
    Europe and naturalised across North America.
    Risk
    Solanine. A common garden and hedgerow plant and one of the berries most often eaten by small children.

    In the record 746,681 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in August · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  14. White baneberry

    Can injure you

    Actaea pachypoda

    Porcelain-white berries each with a single black dot, on thick bright red stalks — the plant is called doll's eyes and looks exactly like that. Nothing else resembles it.

    Size
    Fruit 8–10 mm
    Where
    Eastern North American woodland.
    Risk
    Cardiogenic toxins. Six berries can cause cardiac arrest in a child. The unmistakable appearance is the only good news here.

    In the record 26,709 georeferenced records · half of them Aug–Sep · most distinctive in September · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  15. Red baneberry

    Can injure you

    Actaea rubra

    Glossy scarlet berries in a tight cluster on slender green stalks, over large twice-divided toothed leaves. The stalks are thin, unlike white baneberry's thick red ones.

    Size
    Fruit 8–10 mm
    Where
    Northern North American woodland.
    Risk
    Same cardiogenic toxins as white baneberry.

    In the record 41,417 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  16. Holly

    Can injure you

    Ilex species

    Bright red berries clustered along the twig of an evergreen with glossy spiny-edged leaves. Only female plants fruit.

    Size
    Fruit 6–10 mm
    Where
    Europe and eastern North America.
    Risk
    Saponins. Twenty berries can be serious for a child; two or three cause vomiting. One of the commonest Christmas poison-centre calls.

    In the record 1,043,006 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jul · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  17. Yew

    Can injure you

    Taxus species

    A soft scarlet cup open at the end with a single dark seed visible inside, on a dark evergreen with flat needles in two rows.

    Size
    Aril 8–12 mm
    Where
    Churchyards, hedges and woodland across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    The red flesh is not itself toxic — birds eat it — but the seed inside contains taxine alkaloids that stop the heart, and the needles are lethal to livestock. Treat the whole plant as poison.

    In the record 338,087 georeferenced records · half of them May–Aug · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  18. Virginia creeper

    Can injure you

    Parthenocissus quinquefolia

    Small blue-black berries on bright red stalks on a climber with five leaflets radiating from one point, turning scarlet in autumn and clinging by adhesive pads.

    Size
    Fruit 5–8 mm
    Where
    Eastern North America; widely planted in Europe.
    Risk
    Oxalate crystals. Mistaken for wild grapes; the five-leaflet leaf and the red stalks separate them.

    In the record 118,892 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jun · most distinctive in April · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

    Virginia creeper toxicity

  19. Honeysuckle

    Handle with care

    Lonicera species

    Translucent red or orange berries in pairs at the leaf joints of a vine or twiggy shrub with opposite leaves and tubular fragrant flowers.

    Size
    Fruit 5–10 mm
    Where
    North America, Europe and Asia.
    Risk
    Most species cause vomiting and diarrhoea in quantity; a couple of berries is usually a stomach upset rather than a crisis. Honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea) is a cultivated exception grown as food.
    Honeysuckle and pets

  20. Hawthorn

    Handle with care

    Crataegus species

    Clusters of small red pomes with a crown at the end, on a thorny tree with lobed toothed leaves. The flesh is dry and mealy with one to five hard stones.

    Size
    Fruit 8–15 mm
    Where
    Across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Flesh is edible and traditionally made into jelly. Do not crush and eat the seeds — like apple pips they contain cyanogenic compounds.

    In the record 1,891,167 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jul · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  21. Rose hip

    Handle with care

    Rosa species

    A firm orange-red urn with dried sepals still attached at the tip, on a thorny shrub with pinnate leaves. Very high in vitamin C.

    Size
    Fruit 1–3 cm
    Where
    Across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    The flesh is edible. The interior hairs around the seeds are a mechanical irritant and must be strained out — they were the original itching powder.

    In the record 2,436,329 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in January · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

  22. Chokecherry

    Handle with care

    Prunus virginiana

    Long hanging spikes of small dark cherries, each with a single round stone, on a small tree with oval finely toothed leaves. Astringent enough to make the mouth pucker.

    Size
    Fruit 6–10 mm
    Where
    Across North America.
    Risk
    Flesh is edible and traditionally used for jelly. The stones, leaves and bark contain cyanogenic glycosides; do not crush the pits, and keep livestock off wilted foliage.

    In the record 56,676 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jun · most distinctive in May · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  23. Juniper

    Handle with care

    Juniperus communis

    Hard blue-black berry-like cones with a waxy bloom and a three-part seam at the tip, on a prickly evergreen with sharp needles in whorls of three. Smells of gin.

    Size
    Cone 6–9 mm
    Where
    Across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Common juniper is the culinary species, used as a spice rather than a fruit. Several other junipers are toxic, and juniper should be avoided in pregnancy.

    In the record 797,120 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Aug · most distinctive in February · mostly from France check on GBIF

  24. Cranberry and lingonberry

    Vaccinium macrocarpon, V. vitis-idaea

    Firm sour red berries on a low creeping evergreen mat with tiny leathery leaves, in acid bog or heath. Cranberries float, which is how commercial harvesting works.

    Size
    Fruit 8–20 mm
    Where
    Bogs and heath across northern North America and Eurasia.

    In the record 16,740 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Aug · most distinctive in July · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  25. Wintergreen

    Gaultheria procumbens

    A single mealy red berry under a low evergreen plant with thick glossy oval leaves that smell unmistakably of wintergreen when crushed. The smell confirms it.

    Size
    Fruit 8–12 mm
    Where
    Eastern North American woodland.

    In the record 36,281 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jul · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  26. Partridgeberry

    Mitchella repens

    A red berry with two dimples at the end — it forms from two fused flowers — on a trailing evergreen mat with small round paired leaves marked with a white midrib.

    Size
    Fruit 6–8 mm
    Where
    Eastern North American woodland.

    In the record 66,936 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jun · most distinctive in March · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  27. Jack-in-the-pulpit

    Can injure you

    Arisaema triphyllum

    A tight club of glossy scarlet berries on a bare stalk in late summer, where the hooded pulpit flower was in spring. Leaves in threes on a separate stalk.

    Size
    Cluster 3–6 cm
    Where
    Eastern North American woodland.
    Risk
    Loaded with calcium oxalate needles. Eating one produces immediate intense burning of the mouth and throat rather than delayed poisoning — which usually stops anyone eating a second.

    In the record 73,262 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–May · most distinctive in May · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  28. Lily of the valley

    Can injure you

    Convallaria majalis

    Orange-red berries on an arching stem over two broad basal leaves, in the shady spot where white bells hung in spring.

    Size
    Fruit 6–12 mm
    Where
    Gardens and shaded woodland across the northern hemisphere.
    Risk
    Cardiac glycosides in every part including the vase water. A garden plant with lethal fruit at toddler height.

    In the record 476,918 georeferenced records · half of them Apr–Jun · most distinctive in May · mostly from Sweden check on GBIF

    How deadly lily of the valley is

  29. Sumac

    Handle with care

    Rhus typhina, R. glabra

    An upright fuzzy crimson cone of tiny hairy fruit at the tip of a branch, over long compound leaves. Soaked in cold water it makes a sharp lemony drink.

    Size
    Cone-shaped cluster 10–20 cm
    Where
    Eastern and central North America.
    Risk
    Red-fruited sumacs are edible. Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) has drooping <strong>white</strong> fruit and grows in swamps — its sap causes severe dermatitis. Red and upright is safe; white and drooping is not.

    In the record 118,017 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Aug · most distinctive in October · mostly from the United States check on GBIF

  30. Snowberry

    Can injure you

    Symphoricarpos albus

    Clusters of soft, matt, pure white berries that persist on a bare twiggy shrub through winter, popping when squeezed.

    Size
    Fruit 1–1.5 cm
    Where
    North America; widely planted in Europe.
    Risk
    Saponins. Rarely fatal but reliably causes vomiting, and its appearance and winter persistence make it one of the most-eaten berries by children in northern Europe.

    In the record 209,919 georeferenced records · half of them May–Aug · most distinctive in December · mostly from the United Kingdom check on GBIF

Why colour rules do not work

The most repeated piece of foraging folklore is that white and yellow berries are dangerous, red berries are risky and blue and black berries are safe. It is roughly true as a statistical tendency and completely useless as a decision rule, because the exceptions are exactly the plants that kill people.

  • Black and lethal: deadly nightshade, black nightshade, moonseed, pokeweed.
  • Blue and lethal: Virginia creeper.
  • Red and excellent: raspberry, wild strawberry, cranberry, wintergreen, hawthorn, rose hip.
  • White and edible: white mulberry, some gooseberries and currants.

The related "universal edibility test" — rub it on your skin, hold it on your lip, chew and wait — is worse than useless for berries. It was written for survival situations, it takes over a day per item, and it does not detect the toxins that matter here. Atropine, cardiac glycosides and dauricine produce no warning taste and no immediate reaction, which is precisely why they are dangerous. Do not use it.

The only reliable method is identifying the plant. That means the leaves, the stem, the flower if it is there, the arrangement of the fruit, and the habitat, checked against a regional guide.

The four confusions worth knowing by heart

Berry pairs behind most serious poisonings in North America and Europe, with the character that separates them.
SafeDangerous look-alikeThe test
Wild grapeCanada moonseedCut a berry. A grape has 2–4 pear-shaped seeds; moonseed has one flat crescent. Grapes also have forked tendrils and lobed leaves; moonseed has neither
ElderberryPokeweed, water hemlockElder is woody with opposite compound leaves; pokeweed is a soft herb with a magenta stem and alternate simple leaves
BlueberryBilberry look-alikes, buckthornBlueberries have a five-pointed crown at the far end and a shrub with alternate simple leaves; buckthorn fruit has no crown and 3–4 stones
Staghorn sumacPoison sumacEdible sumac fruit is red, hairy and stands upright in a cone; poison sumac fruit is white and hangs, and it grows in swamps

The moonseed case deserves particular attention because it is the one that has repeatedly killed adults. The vine grows in the same hedgerows as wild grape, produces bunches of the same size and colour at the same time of year, and the difference is inside the fruit. Cutting a single berry open takes two seconds and settles it, and there is no reason ever to eat a wild grape without doing it.

A short list you can actually forage safely

Beginner foraging works best when it starts with the species that have no dangerous look-alikes at all. In North America and Europe that list is short and it is enough.

  • Blackberries and raspberries. The whole Rubus genus is edible. There is no poisonous bramble. Learn these first.
  • Wild strawberry. The only look-alike is mock strawberry, which is bland and harmless.
  • Blueberry, huckleberry, cranberry, lingonberry. The Vaccinium crown is reliable and the genus contains nothing toxic.
  • Rose hips. Unmistakable, and every rose is safe. Strain the interior hairs out.
  • Serviceberry. An ornamental in half the front gardens in the northern US, ripening in June and almost never picked.

Elderberry is worth adding once you can identify the plant confidently, with the discipline that the berries are always cooked and the leaves and stems never used. Everything else — the wild grapes, the cherries, the sumac, the juniper — belongs to a stage after you have someone local check your identification in person.

If a child eats an unknown berry

This is the most common real-world use of a page like this, and speed matters more than certainty.

  1. Call poison control immediately. In the United States, (800) 222-1222; in the UK, 111; in most of Europe, the national poison centre number. The call is free and they would far rather advise on a harmless berry than be called an hour late about a dangerous one.
  2. Take a sample of the plant. A shoot with leaves, fruit and if possible flowers, in a bag. Photograph the whole plant in place as well, including how it grows.
  3. Do not induce vomiting and do not give salt water, milk or activated charcoal unless told to. Syrup of ipecac has been withdrawn from that role and current guidance is against it.
  4. Note the time and how many. Both change what happens next.
  5. Watch for the specific signs. Dilated pupils, flushed dry skin, confusion or hallucination suggest atropine — deadly nightshade or jimsonweed — and are an ambulance call. A slow or irregular pulse suggests cardiac glycosides, from lily of the valley, baneberry or yew, and is equally urgent.

Prevention is easier than any of this. The berries most often eaten by small children are the ones at their height in gardens and parks: snowberry, bittersweet nightshade, honeysuckle, holly, yew and lily of the valley. Those six are worth learning purely so you know what is growing where children play.

Foraging responsibly, and legally

Rules vary and matter. In the United States, foraging is prohibited in most National Parks without a permit, restricted in many state parks, and illegal on private land without permission. In the United Kingdom, the Wildlife and Countryside Act allows picking fruit growing wild for personal use on land you have access to, but not uprooting plants, and Sites of Special Scientific Interest have their own rules. Check before you pick, not afterwards.

Do not pick from contaminated ground. Roadside verges accumulate vehicle pollutants, field margins carry pesticide drift and industrial sites carry heavy metals. Dog-walking routes are worth avoiding at knee height for reasons that need no elaboration.

Leave most of it. Berries are the winter food supply for birds and mammals, and a hedgerow stripped in September is a hedgerow with nothing in it in January. Taking a third and leaving the rest is the conventional and sensible rule.

Do not spread invasives. Several plants on this list — Himalayan blackberry in the western US, buckthorn and bush honeysuckle in the Midwest, Japanese knotweed in the UK — are invasive, and moving fruit or seed around moves the problem.

What this key can and cannot do

30 entries covering the berries people actually encounter and ask about in North America and Europe: the good ones, the dangerous ones, and the pairs that get confused. That is a small slice of what fruits in a temperate hedgerow, and the omissions are deliberate — buckthorns, viburnums, currants, gooseberries, bearberries, dogwoods, nannyberry and dozens of others are absent because they need the whole plant to separate and a picture of a berry cannot do it.

The honest framing for any tool of this kind: a key narrows possibilities, and a person confirms them. For berries the gap between those two things can be fatal, which is why every entry here names the plant rather than the fruit and why the look-alike line is often the most important sentence in the entry.

If you want to learn to forage properly, the fastest route is a local walk with a foraging group or a botanical society. An afternoon with someone who knows the local flora is worth more than any number of photographs, and it is how the reliable identifications get built.

What the observation record shows

Every entry in this key that carries a scientific name is matched against GBIF, the international register of biodiversity records, and against iNaturalist. That puts a hard number behind 28 of the 30berries here: 5,317,661 georeferenced records across the 21 entries that resolve to a single species, spanning 16 families, the oldest of them collected in 1945. The snapshot was taken on 2026-09-04.

That evidence is not spread evenly, and it is worth knowing before you trust a narrow result. The five best-recorded berries in this key hold 68% of all the records between them: Raspberry and black raspberry alone accounts for 799,549, while Canada moonseed has 11,746. A common thing is common in the data too, so when a filter narrows to one frequent entry and one rare one, the frequent one is usually the answer — and the record count is the quickest way to see which is which. The same skew applies geographically: 20% of these records come from France, so the key describes what is reported there far better than it describes anywhere else.

When these are actually reported

Share of 4,282,564 GBIF records of 21 berries by month of the year, against the seasonal average for all Orvik records 0%5%10%15%20%JFMAMJJASOND■ share of records — vs. all Orvik records 1.0 = the seasonal average
Half of the 4,282,564 georeferenced records for these 21 berries fall in June–August alone. The bars are the raw share by month, which mostly measures when people go looking; the line divides each month by the baseline for every species in every Orvik key, so a value above 1.0 means these berries are reported more than the season alone explains, and it peaks in July. Source: GBIF, snapshot 2026-09-04.

Half of every record for this group falls in June–August. A raw month count measures two things at once — when the organism is about, and when people are outdoors with a camera — and the second effect is large enough to give almost anything a summer peak. The line on the figure divides each month by the baseline for every species in every Orvik key, which answers a different question: relative to when people record anything at all, when are these berries recorded? Values above 1.0 are the months that belong to this group rather than to the season. On that measure 9 of the 21berries here peak outside the warm half of the year — Juniper, Black nightshade, Blackberry among them. Those are the ones a seasonal rule of thumb gets wrong.

Records behind each entry

Sorted by how much evidence exists, not by how likely you are to meet one. The peak month is the effort-adjusted figure, and it is left blank wherever the sample is too thin for the month-to-month wobble to mean anything.

GBIF and iNaturalist record counts for the 28 named berries in this key, snapshot 2026-09-04. Rows above species rank aggregate everything beneath them and are not comparable with the rest. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
EntryAccepted nameRankGBIF recordsResearch-gradeHalf fall inPeak, adjustedMost reported from
Raspberry and black raspberryRubus idaeus L.species799,54986,576May–JulJulythe United Kingdom
Wild strawberryFragaria vesca L.species798,077106,452May–JulAprilFrance
JuniperJuniperus communis L.species797,12088,541Jun–AugFebruaryFrance
Bittersweet nightshadeSolanum dulcamara L.species746,681131,508May–JulAugustthe United Kingdom
Lily of the valleyConvallaria majalis L.species476,91877,411Apr–JunMaySweden
Black nightshadeSolanum nigrum L.species363,094148,250Jul–SepNovemberFrance
BlackberryRubus fruticosus L.species255,561194,247Mar–JulFebruaryFrance
SnowberrySymphoricarpos albus (L.) K.Kochspecies209,91976,170May–AugDecemberthe United Kingdom
PokeweedPhytolacca americana L.species195,553182,318Jul–SepOctoberthe United States
Virginia creeperParthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.species118,892162,515Apr–JunAprilthe United States
SumacRhus typhina L.species118,01790,351Jun–AugOctoberthe United States
Jack-in-the-pulpitArisaema triphyllum (L.) Schottspecies73,262126,312Apr–MayMaythe United States
PartridgeberryMitchella repens L.species66,93680,632Mar–JunMarchthe United States
Deadly nightshadeAtropa belladonna L.species57,9539,083May–JulJuneGermany
ChokecherryPrunus virginiana L.species56,676100,872Apr–JunMaythe United States
ElderberrySambucus canadensis L.species50,56081,636May–JulMarchthe United States
Red baneberryActaea rubra (Aiton) Willd.species41,41746,011Jun–JulJulythe United States
WintergreenGaultheria procumbens L.species36,28142,400Apr–JulMarchthe United States
White baneberryActaea pachypoda Elliottspecies26,70938,412Aug–SepSeptemberthe United States
Cranberry and lingonberryVaccinium macrocarpon Aitonspecies16,74011,030Jun–AugJulythe United States
Canada moonseedMenispermum canadense L.species11,74617,069Apr–JunMaythe United States
Blueberry and huckleberryVaccinium L.genus2,513,864483,291May–JulJulySweden
Rose hipRosa L.genus2,436,32910,017,950May–JulJanuarythe United Kingdom
HawthornCrataegus L.genus1,891,167281,545Apr–JulMarchthe United Kingdom
HollyIlex L.L.genus1,043,006403,501Mar–JulMarchthe United Kingdom
YewTaxus L.genus338,087—May–AugMarchthe United Kingdom
ServiceberryAmelanchier Medik.genus293,125179,522Apr–JunAprilFrance
Wild grapeVitis L.genus226,757250,130Apr–JulAprilthe United States

This table is assembled from open data and is free to reuse with a link back to this page. The snapshot behind every Orvik key is published as one downloadable file on the open field data page, with each source's licence terms.

Questions people ask about this

How can I tell if a wild berry is poisonous?

You cannot tell from the berry. Colour rules do not work — there are edible red berries and lethal black ones — and the survival "universal edibility test" does not detect the toxins that matter, because atropine and cardiac glycosides give no warning taste. The only reliable method is identifying the plant: leaves, stem, flower, how the fruit is arranged, and habitat, checked against a regional guide or by someone who knows the local flora.

Are there any berries with no poisonous look-alikes?

Yes, and they are where to start. The entire Rubus genus — blackberries and raspberries — has no toxic member and no dangerous mimic. Wild strawberries, blueberries and their Vaccinium relatives, and rose hips are similarly safe to learn. Those four cover most of what a beginner will find and are the standard first foraging targets for that reason.

What is the difference between wild grapes and moonseed?

Cut a berry open. A wild grape contains two to four pear-shaped seeds; Canada moonseed contains a single flat crescent-shaped seed. Grapes also have forked tendrils and lobed leaves attached at the notch, while moonseed has no tendrils and leaves whose stalk attaches inside the blade. Moonseed has killed adults who mistook it for grapes, so cut a berry every time.

Can you eat elderberries raw?

No. Ripe black elderberries are a traditional food when cooked, but raw berries, and all leaves, stems and roots, contain cyanogenic glycosides and cause vomiting and diarrhoea. Red elderberry is more toxic still and its seeds should not be eaten at all. Cook the fruit, strain out the stems, and never use any green part of the plant.

My child ate a berry from the garden. What do I do?

Call poison control immediately — (800) 222-1222 in the US, 111 in the UK — and take a shoot with leaves and fruit with you, plus a photograph of the whole plant. Do not induce vomiting or give anything to drink unless instructed. Note the time and how many were eaten. Dilated pupils, flushed skin and confusion, or a slow irregular pulse, mean call an ambulance rather than waiting.

Which garden berries are dangerous to children?

The six worth learning because they are at toddler height in gardens and parks: snowberry, bittersweet nightshade, honeysuckle, holly, yew and lily of the valley. Deadly nightshade and pokeweed are less common but far more serious. White baneberry is unmistakable — porcelain-white berries with a black dot on thick red stalks — and six of them can stop a child's heart.

Is it true that if birds eat a berry, people can?

No, and it is a dangerous belief. Birds tolerate many compounds that harm mammals, and the yew is the clearest case: birds eat the red flesh freely and pass the seed intact, while the seed itself contains alkaloids that stop a human heart. Pokeweed, holly and nightshade are all eaten by birds too. What birds eat tells you nothing about what people can eat.

Still not sure? Point a camera at it

A filter narrows berries down to a shortlist. Orvik reads the photo itself and names the species, with the look-alikes ranked underneath so you can check the call yourself.

Get Orvik free

Keep reading on Orvik

Other free Orvik tools

What mushroom is this?Identify a tree by its barkWhat wildflower is this?What succulent is this?What caterpillar is this?What spider is this?What beetle is this?Is that a butterfly or a moth, and which one?

Where the data comes from