Cranberries evolved so they wouldn’t be eaten.
Most fruits want to be eaten so that birds disperse the seeds.
Their preferred method of dispersal was dropping into flowing water, so that they could find somewhere nice to grow near water.
The astringent taste was to stop birds eating them. They became buoyant in water to help them float down stream.
Humans appeared and loved that dry flavour.
Became one of the most eaten fruits on the planet.
Humans even harvest them by flooding and using their own buoyancy against them.
They will get their revenge.
Which is funny since cranberries grow on the water.
Cranberries do not grow on the water.
Their fields are flooded during harvest because that expedites harvesting.
Cranberries don’t grow on the water, the fields are just flooded at harvest time because the berries float, which makes it an easy method to gather them.
Are the plants growing? Are they in water? Your honor, no further questions
Farmed cranberries are grown in fields that are flooded at harvest. Cranberries naturally grow in bogs. Not water like a lake, but shallow wetlands, yes.
