The common name kinnikinnick means 🌫 "smoking mixture" in
Algonquian
— see ↓ below for button Uses by native peoples (Ethnobotany database).
In the scientific botanical name:
- the genus name Arctostaphylos means 🐻︎🍇︎ "bear — bunch-of-grapes" ("bearberry") in Greek, and
- the species-specific name uva-ursi means 🍇︎🐻︎ "grapes-bear" ("bearberry") in Latin.
Despite its English common name, botanically, its fruit is not a berry,
but a
"drupe".
Part of
heath / heather family Ericaceae.
Native circumpolar through the 🌐︎ Northern Hemisphere: North America, Europe and Asia. Mostly in higher latitudes (arctic and subarctic) or altitudes, but also equator-ward to the Indiana Dunes, Central California, New Mexico, and some 🗻︎ mountains in 🇬🇹 Guatemala!
Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)
Arctostaphylos hosts caterpillars of 17 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.