🫐 Edible Florida Native Plants Series: Featuring Blueberries

Blueberries Environmental Health Blog

🫐 Edible Florida Native Plants Series: Featuring Blueberries

By Jennilee Mirtil, MPH, in partnership with Youth Environmental Alliance

Hello everyone, we are back with another Florida native that’s both delicious and deeply rooted in our landscape: blueberries!

Yep, you read right, Florida is home to native wild blueberries, and planting them in your yard is a tasty way to support local wildlife and enjoy nature’s snack bar right outside your door.

 🌿 “How do blueberries benefit us?”

Aside from the obvious, native blueberries are drought-tolerant, low-maintenance, and totally at home in Florida’s sandy, acidic soils especially in central and north Florida.

They make excellent hedges or edible borders, and when planted in groups, they can help cool down your outdoor space, support healthy soil moisture, and add a soft, calming beauty with their silvery green leaves and springtime flowers. 👀

Nutritionally, blueberries are packed with vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidants. Studies link them to improved memory, heart health, and anti-inflammatory benefits. Plus, growing your own means fewer trips to the store and less plastic packaging adding bonus points for sustainability!

Darrow’s Blueberry is a small evergreen shrub with lovely foliage and edible fruit. Photo credit: A. Marek, UF/IFAS

🐦 “Who eats them besides us?”

Blueberries are basically bird candy. Native species like the blue jay, catbird, thrasher, and woodpecker are known to snack on the ripe berries. Even outside of fruiting season, the dense shrubs provides nesting and shelter, especially for smaller birds.

 🐛 “What about butterflies and moths?”

Again like the grapes. Blueberries are larval host plants for several native species of moths and butterflies, including the brown elfin butterfly and bluet moths. Their springtime flowers also attract bees and other pollinators, helping keep your whole yard buzzing with life.

Brown elfin butterfly - INaturalist

🏁 Final thoughts 📃

If you’re dreaming of a yard full of flavor, color, and life, native blueberries are a sweet place to start. They’re perfect for kids' gardens, pollinator patches, or even a Florida-friendly edible landscape. Whether eaten straight from the bush or baked in a pie, this native plant allows to protect and maintain Florida's biodiversity one berry at a time. Now remember, only certain varieties of Fl native blueberries are edible, some may be toxic to humans, so know before you grow and research which variety you would like to plant!

🐸  Youth Environmental Alliance (YEA) 🐸

a Florida-based organization helping people of all ages connect with nature, live sustainably, and uncover new opportunities to thrive in their environment.

Learn more at: https://www.youthenvironmentalalliance.com/ 

🔗 Dive deeper into Florida’s blueberries 🫐:

•  UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions: Blueberries in the Home Landscape

•  Florida Wildflower Foundation: Native Blueberries

•  EDIS: Florida's Native and Ornamental Blueberries

• Florida Native Plant Society: Growing Native Vaccinium