By Laura Schelling of University of Vermont
It is said that he who tastes the fruit of the calafate always returns to Patagonia. The story is centered around an elderly Tehuelche woman. The Tehuelche are a tribe native to Patagonia, who were nomads who would hunt and forage for food, moving together throughout the region. One winter, as the tribe was moving, an elderly healer woman named Koonex, felt too weak to continue to travel. The women of the tribe made her canopy with guanaco skins and left her alone to die. When spring arrived the voice of the old healer was heard, asking why the birds left her alone during the winter, who replied they had no food. She understood, and a gust of wind turned her into a thorny calafate bush. From that day on, some birds no longer migrated and those who had left always returned to taste her fruit.
Another legend goes that the calafate is a plant born of love between two young Tehuelche who could not be together. The girl, Calafate, had a father who was a sorcerer and did not want her to be with the boy. So he transformed the girl into a calafate bush and, so that no one tasted the fruit, he added those great thorns. For many months the young man wandered the steppe looking for his beloved Calafate. The spirits helped him by turning him into a bird to help him travel, where one day he landed on a bush that he had not seen before and when tasting its fruits, he realized they were as sweet as the heart of Calafate. Hence, it is said whoever eats them once, will always return.
Calafate berries are maybe the most well-known and well-loved shrubs in all of Patagonia. As they are indigenous to the region, deeply rooted in Patagonian folklore, and delightfully tasty to snack on, especially when on long treks through the Patagonian backcountry. The berries are a small round fruit which assume a blue-black color when ripe. The fruit is sweet and sour and holds many tiny seeds. It is often harvested for local culinary purposes such as jams, jellies or pies, and even for a calafate sour, a twist of the usual pisco sour served in the region.
The berries grow from the shrub, Berberis microphylla, that can be distinguished by its straight, brick-red stems and small, glossy, box-like evergreen leaves. The leaves are made up of three small ovate leaflets and at its base they have three stipules modified into trifid spines. They usually grow to a height of between three to four feet (around one meter). And you certainly would not miss the short spikes protecting the fruit and flowers when trying to harvest its sweet treats. Humans are not the only ones to enjoy its gifts, as explained in the common folklore. But native birds, huemul, guanaco, ñandú, sheep, and insects are known to appreciate these gifts of nature as well – all working together to spread the seeds, giving back to the gifts she gives to us!
During the summer, the bush grows small, six-petal, beautiful yellow flowers. I have seen the women of Patagonia use the yellow flowers to dye wool used for color in different knit items. The flowers bloom from October to January while it bears fruits from November to April. Its bark has also been used for red dyes.
Calafate’s range covers most of Chile and Southern Argentina, from Neuquén to Tierra del Fuego in Chile, growing in semi-arid soils in areas of high sunlight. Although, I have seen these bushes perhaps in every habitat we walked through during our time in Patagonia. However, I believe it was definitely most prevalent in the Patagonian steppe, accompanied by other bushes such as neneo, neneo macho, senecio species, or escallonia species who enjoy a lot of sun. I have also seen calafate bushes scattered in mallíns (marshes), slopes, valleys, grasslands, on high rocky mountain tops, banks of rivers, lakes, and lagoons, lenga forests, and sphagnum bogs. Essentially this species is quite resilient and will grow from the coast at sea level to high elevations of mountains. It thrives in dry climates, where there can be a lack of precipitation from three to five months, however, it also grows in very rainfed areas.
There is no specific evidence regarding the conservation status of calafate, however, like all species, their range has decreased dramatically due to the increasing populations and urbanization in Patagonia, which is always something to look out for.
