Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs. They naturally occur in acidic bogs throughout the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs with slender, wiry stems and small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct petals. The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness. There are three to four species of cranberry.
In North America, Native Americans were the first to recognize and use the cranberry as a source of food. Some tribes called the red berries Sassamanash. They are reported to have introduced the cranberry to starving English settlers in Massachusetts around 1620, who eagerly incorporated the berry into the traditional Thanksgiving feast. American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall is alleged to be the first to cultivate the cranberry commercially, in the Cape Cod town of Dennis around 1816.
Cranberries are a major commercial crop in the American states of Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington, as well as in British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia in Canada.