Golden Currant vs Bog Cranberry (Lingonberry) - TreeTime.ca

Golden Currant vs Bog Cranberry (Lingonberry)

Ribes aureum

Vaccinium vitis-idaea

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON

NOT AVAILABLE THIS SEASON

Golden Currant
Bog Cranberry (Lingonberry)

Golden Currant produces berries for jams, jellies, sauces and even pemmican. This currant bush is very dense, allowing for use as a hedge, windbreak, or wildlife habitat.

This plant is also a very popular rootstock to graft popular red and white currant varieties to. The resulting plants are taller, more productive, and easier to harvest.

Bog Cranberry is a native, ground cover species. These plants generally produce one crop per year in summer. Plants may spread 3 feet in width forming a dense mat which makes it attractive as an ornamental ground cover.

Wild crops of Bog Cranberry are harvested each year in Newfoundland (more than 200,000 lbs/yr). Harvest of wild fruit can no longer keep up with demand. In Europe, 80 million pounds per year of this crop is grown or harvested from the wild.

Bog Cranberry flowers are similar in shape to those of blueberry and may be white or pink in color. These berries are considered to be highly flavored but not as tart as cranberries.

Check out our YouTube video of this plant in the fall: Fall Bog Cranberry.

Golden Currant Quick Facts

Bog Cranberry (Lingonberry) Quick Facts

Zone: 4a
Zone: 2a
Height: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Height: 0.2 m (0.7 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Spread: 0.9 m (3 ft)
Moisture: normal
Moisture: normal, wet
Light: partial shade, full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no
Fall colour: reddish purple
Berries: glossy black berries
Berries: tart, cranberry-like
Flowers: yellow
Flowers: white or pink
Growth rate: medium
Growth rate: slow
Life span: short
Life span: medium
Suckering: medium
Suckering: low




Other Names: buffalo currant, clove currant, fragrant golden currant, golden flowering currant, spicebush
Other Names: cowberry, dry ground cranberry, fox berry, foxberry, lingonberry, northern mountain cranberry, partridgeberry, rock cranberry, wolf berry, wolf-berry