Crowberry - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CROWBERRY, or Crakeberry, the English name for a lowgrowing heath-like shrub, found on heaths and rocks in Scotland, Ireland and mountainous parts of England. It is known botanically as Empetrum nigrum, and has slender, wiry, spreading branches covered with short, narrow, stiff leaves, the margins of which are recurved so as to form a hollow cylinder concealing the hairy under face of the leaf - a device to avoid excessive loss of water from the leaf under the exposed conditions in which the plant grows. The minute flowers are succeeded by black, edible, berry-like fruits, one-fourth to one-third of an inch in diameter. The plant has a wide distribution, occurring in suitable localities throughout the north temperate zone, and on the Andes of South America.