q about a plant (bush)

[nsherve]

There's a plant that looks like huckleberry, but it's quite a bit bigger and has grown faster. It also has berries, which also look like huckleberries, but are ripe now. I tasted one (not eat it), and it was kinda sweet. They are a good bit firmer than the huckleberries. I did not see the flowers. Any ideas? I'll put up pictures if I can shrink them..

[nsherve]

Also, some of them are pretty tall...a lot more than huckleberries. Around 8 or 9ft...

[nsherve]

Trying to upload pics of it, but I'm having issues with it. Mostly because I'm not computer inclined...

[Pat B]

The pic will help for sure. Where are you located?

[nsherve]

West-central Alabama

[Pat B]

Without a pic I couldn't hardly guess.

[oldhippy]

   I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about. I also have the same plant around my house, the leaves are like blueberry leaves, and the plants will get rather large. The berries get ripe in the fall and drop to the ground. They stay a dull green color sometimes turning a light brown, edible but has a slightly bitter aftertaste. I asked people for years and no one knew what they were. This year I became friends with one of my old neighbors and found out he was an oldtimer that had grown up in the mountains around here. I asked him and he told me it was a wild gooseberry and he had eaten many of them when he was growing up. 

[Pat B]

...but without pics it is impossible to say for sure.
 Hey Steve. Long time no see.

[nsherve]

The berries on this plant are pretty small, smaller than blueberries, about the size of huckleberries. They are almost black colored, a lot like huckleberries. I wish I could load a picture, but our internet is really slow, so it won't load.

[nsherve]

I shaved a stem down. The inner wood is kinda greenish (under all bark) white. It is pretty stiff. I took it down to 1/2" with a hand tool for making dowels. I don't remember what the tool's called.

[nsherve]

I've been looking and looking on the net for what it might be. It looks like it could be sparkleberry or gallberry.

[Pat B]

Gallberry is a holly. Has shiny dark green leaves and like all hollies it has serrated edges on the leaves. They might be small but they will be there if it is gallberry.

[nsherve]

I went and looked at it again. The leaves are turning a rusty reddish-purple. I tasted the berries again. They are kinda sweet and dark purple (almost black), but really gritty inside. I can't tell a much of a smell, if any. I keep trying to put up pictures, but our net really is horrible. I guess that's the way it is if you live away from any large town/city. We have hardly any cell service, either.
Yea, they aren't a holly.

[nsherve]

Trying again to put up a picture. Maybe it'll go through this time.