Question
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We have several bushes on our property that have tiny blue berries that are now turning blue -- they used to be green. I don't think they are blueberries because they don't have a crown on the bottom of the berry. Our dog eats them and doesn't seem to be fazed by them. I am attaching a picture. I can send more pics if this is not sufficient. Thank you for your assistance!
AnswerLooks to me like you may have a blue-fruited Dogwood bush, Cornus sp. The opposite, non-toothed leaves with veins that follow the edge of the leaf and bluish fruits in panicles lean toward this.
The common eastern Dogwoods with blue berries are Stiff Dogwood, Cornus foemina (leaves green below, southern US); Narrowleaf Dogwood, Cornus obliqua (leaves white below, northern US); Silky Dogwood, Cornus amomum (leaves rounder at base than these); and Roundleaf Dogwood, Cornus rugosa (rounder leaves than these, purple blotched twigs). If you are not in the eastern US, there are other varieties.
Other possibilities are Buckthorns, Rhamnus sp. (though leaves usually toothed and fruit not in long panicles); Huckleberries, Gaylussacia sp. or Vaccinium sp. (though the veins don't generally follow the leaf edge); and even Blueberries, Vaccinium sp. (though, again, the veins don't follow the leaf edge, and the berries usually have the "crown" left from the flower).
If you open a berry and look at the seeds it would tell us a lot. Dogwoods have one seed per berry, Buckthorns usually 2-4, Huckleberries about 10, and Blueberries have the very tiny seeds of the grocery-store variety.
Huckleberries and Blueberries are edible. Dogwoods and especially Buckthorns are not. Buckthorn berry juice can irritate the skin, so you might open the berry with a knife or wear gloves. Both Buckthorns and Dogwoods would cause vomiting, but Dogwoods only mildly so, and are probably not harmful to your dog. If it is a Buckthorn, I'd put some deer netting over it or something to discourage the dog from eating them.
