Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Andrew. Andrew Wonders, “ Are huckleberries real or made up? ” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Andrew!

Many fans of old cartoons fondly remember Huckleberry Hound. Fans of classic literature almost always know Huckleberry Finn. Of course, all of this begs the question: exactly what is a huckleberry?

Huckleberries might sound a bit like a made-up creation for books or cartoons, but we assure you they're real fruits. In fact, they're the state fruit of Idaho.

Throughout North America, people use the name “huckleberry" to refer to several different plants from the Ericaceae family. Some species of huckleberries fall into the genus Gaylussacia, while others are part of the genus Vaccinium.

Huckleberries are edible and quite tasty. The small, round berries resemble blueberries. In fact, in some parts of the United States, huckleberries might be called blueberries and blueberries might be called huckleberries. They're not the same fruit, though.

The various species of huckleberries range in color from bright red to dark purple to blue. Red huckleberries tend to have a tart flavor, while purple and blue huckleberries taste sweeter. In addition to humans, many animals enjoy huckleberries, including bears!

Huckleberries grow wild in many different parts of the U.S. Perhaps this is why the huckleberry inspired many different phrases dating back to the 1800s.

Because huckleberries are small, the word “huckleberry" was often used as a nickname for something small, unimportant, or insignificant. Scholars believe this was the meaning Mark Twain had in mind when he named his Huckleberry Finn character. People at that time would have understood that “Huck" Finn's name was a clue that he was a small boy who was of a lower class than his companion, Tom Sawyer.

Huckleberries were also often compared to persimmons, which are much larger, to express the idea of something small against something big. This usage eventually led to the popular phrase “a huckleberry over my persimmon," which meant something was just beyond one's abilities.

One of the most famous huckleberry phrases, though, was “I'm your huckleberry." If you said “I'm your huckleberry," it meant you were expressing that you were the right person for a particular job. A similar phrase today might be something along the lines of “I'm your man."

No one knows for sure how that phrase came to be so popular or how it got its meaning. Scholars suspect it evolved over time out of the idea that huckleberry was often used as a term of endearment or friendship.