Index / Search / Empetrum nigrum
§1 Plant
Empetrum nigrum L.
vernacular black crowberry — species · Empetraceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Shrub, Subshrub
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Empetraceae Hook. & Lindl.
- Genus
- Empetrum
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Native
- CAN Canada Native
- GL Greenland Native
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
- SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Native
§2b
County-level range
· 33 counties across 4 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Medium
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -43 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 90 min.
- Precipitation
- 16–55 in/yr
- pH range
- 4.3–7.8
- Root depth
- 16 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Stoloniferous
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Lifespan
- Moderate
- Mature height
- 1 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 1 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Moderate
- Flower colour
- Purple
- Fruit colour
- Black
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Mid Summer
- Seed abundance
- Medium
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- Yes
- Propagation
- seed, cuttings, bare root, container, sprigs
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 33 counties across 4 states/territories.
Alaska view state ↗ 24 N ▾
- Aleutians East 02013
- Aleutians West 02016
- Anchorage 02020
- Bethel 02050
- Bristol Bay 02060
- Chugach 02063
- Copper River 02066
- Denali 02068
- Dillingham 02070
- Fairbanks North Star 02090
- Haines 02100
- Juneau 02110
- Kenai Peninsula 02122
- Ketchikan Gateway 02130
- Kodiak Island 02150
- Lake and Peninsula 02164
- Matanuska-Susitna 02170
- Nome 02180
- North Slope 02185
- Northwest Arctic 02188
- Sitka 02220
- Southeast Fairbanks 02240
- Yakutat 02282
- Yukon-Koyukuk 02290
New Hampshire view state ↗ 3 N ▾
New York view state ↗ 2 N ▾
Vermont view state ↗ 4 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/EMNI ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/8925249 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T05:06:36Z