Omnia SanaThis tool aids identification but does not replace an expert. Never eat a wild plant or fungus on the strength of a single feature. When in doubt, throw it out.
Bearberry can be confused with 1 dangerous plant/fungus. Check every distinguishing feature before you trust an identification.
A dense evergreen hedge and topiary shrub whose leaves are poisonous. Ingestion causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and dizziness and, in larger amounts, convulsions and respiratory failure, and the sap can irritate skin. Its small leathery evergreen leaves have been used to adulterate, and are confused with, bearberry (uva-ursi) leaves.
Confusable part: Small leathery evergreen leaves gathered as the medicinal 'uva-ursi'; the poisonous leaves of box look similar and have been used to adulterate bearberry.
Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) leaves are collected as a urinary herb. As documented in pharmacognosy, during collection bearberry is commonly confused with cowberry (edible) and with box (Buxus sempervirens), and poisonous box - which lacks bearberry's active arbutin - has occasionally been used to adulterate the drug. Box leaves are poisonous, containing steroidal alkaloids that cause vomiting, diarrhoea, dizziness and, in quantity, convulsions and respiratory failure. Because the small leathery evergreen leaves are similar, box is a genuine toxic adulterant/look-alike of bearberry.
How to tell them apart
- Leaf apex (decisive): bearberry leaves are spatulate with an entire (untoothed) margin and a rounded apex. Box leaves have a small notch cut out at the tip (emarginate).
- Leaf underside: box leaves have a loose, separable epidermis on the underside and lack the astringency of bearberry; bearberry leaves are firm and astringent with a net of sunken veins.
- Source: buy uva-ursi only from suppliers who authenticate the leaf, since adulteration with box cannot be judged casually.
Check the leaf tip. Bearberry leaves are spoon-shaped with a smooth margin and a ROUNDED tip. A leaf with a notch cut out of the tip (and a loose skin on the underside) is box - poisonous, not bearberry. Use only authenticated uva-ursi.
Educational identification aid compiled from the Omnia Sana plant database and cited botanical and toxicological sources. Not medical advice and not a substitute for expert identification.