What is this wild florida berry?

[D-Grower]

Appears to be in the blueberry family.  Sweet with good edibilty so says my buddy that found these. Doesn't quite look like a true Huckleberry,  sparkleberry, or blueberry. Wild blueberries are done for the season up here in the panhandle too. The bush in question is in Milton, FL. Huckleberry persists on the bushes way longer than blueberries but aren't good. Mostly grainy and tasteless. Leaves are usually rounded from wild bushes ive seen. Many sparkleberry or farkleberry are bitter though technically edible but not palatable in most cases. What the heck is this thing??? My best guess is that it is a sparkleberry of some sort thats not bitter and good quality. What y'all thinking?

[Galatians522]

I don't see any pictures, but one bluberry relative with good fruit that you have not mentioned in the list of possibilities is Deer Berry. It looks a lot like a blueberry but has redish-purple flesh instead of green flesh. Some people like them better than blueberries. True huckleberries will have exactly 10 seeds in most fruits.

[Galatians522]

I see the pictures now. My guess is that you have a Deer Berry there. It should be really easy to tell appart from Sparkle Berry when they bloom. Here is a picture comparing the two.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/putnamco/2019/04/26/the-native-cousins-of-blueberries/&ved=2ahUKEwjV_M3_7qLyAhVsQjABHX8oCssQFnoECA0QAg&usg=AOvVaw0zhdmcLibcy1iAYKiY8i4L&cshid=1628475416622

[D-Grower]

Yes that looks like a winner. Definitely seems like the right plant. Thanks!

Now to get these growing on my properties...

[850FL]

Yeah definitely deer berry. Not all sparkle berries are bad either! You need to eat a hand ful at once. Here is a patch of some kind of dwarf scrub blueberries close to the coast. It is the first time I have noticed these tiny bushes (the ones inland are bigger). They have small leaves and only grow to a foot or so..




Berries with crowns on the bottom are edible. There are also wild paw paws persimmons red mulberries quince, grapes(ripe now), Chickasaw plum, really good wild pp cactus fruit too
Beauty berry is also edible

[Galatians522]

Yeah definitely deer berry. Not all sparkle berries are bad either! You need to eat a hand ful at once. Here is a patch of some kind of dwarf scrub blueberries close to the coast. It is the first time I have noticed these tiny bushes (the ones inland are bigger). They have small leaves and only grow to a foot or so..




Berries with crowns on the bottom are edible. There are also wild paw paws persimmons red mulberries quince, grapes(ripe now), Chickasaw plum, really good wild pp cactus fruit too
Beauty berry is also edible

That is a Darrow's Blueberry. It is pretty tasty, but very small. Another similar native blueberry is the Shiny Blueberry. Both are dwarfed, but the Darrow's has a bluish waxy bloom on the leaves while the Shiny is, as one would expect, shiney and bright green. Darrow's will also grow a little taller in my experience, and has smaller but slightly better tasting berries.