According to Walker, Cornus canadensis, bunchberries, can be found in clearings and moist woodlands. "It is a low mat-forming herb that spreads until it's a carpet of green, studded here and there with flowers. Each plant has an upright wiry stem amd grows to more or less six inches. Each stem has a cluster of leaves toward the top. Above the leaves, a 5-petal white 'star
(is not a flower but) actually bracts. At center of the star is the true flower, tiny, greenish-white or yellowish. Tiny berry-like fruits grow in clusters scarlet-fleshed with a single hard seed at the Centre....Bunchberry fruit is palatable and juicy but tasteless. Harvest when bright red. It is best right off the plants. The seeds resemble poppy seeds. When cooking, strain them out after boiling and mix with apples or berries, or use in puddings, preserves or sauces."
Sources:
"Wildflowers of Churchill and the Hudson Bay Region," Karen L. Johnson. (published by Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, in 1987)
Harvesting the Northern Wild, Marilyn Walker, The Northern Publishers, Box 1350 Yellowknife, NWT X1A 2N9, 1984;
The American Indian Ethnobotany Database
The Flora of Churchill, Manitoba 7th edition, 1991 by Peter A. Scott, Dept. Zoology, U Toronto 25 harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario CA M5S 1A1
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