Rhizomes will also survive fires of this nature. Seeds are hard and have thick seed coats, making them somewhat resistant to fire. Low-severity fires stimulate germination of seeds stored in the soil. Fruit consumed by many small mammals. Foliage browsed by white-tailed deer, moose, beaver, rabbit, and snowshoe hare.
Black bears consume berries in late fall.
Seeds exhibit seed coat and embryo dormancy that requires a two-stage stratification to be broken. Highbush Cranberry is a seed banking species. Vegetative reproduction by layering and sprouting from damaged root stocks, stembases, and stumps. The plant is rhizomatous, but there is no evidence of lateral spread from the parent by rhizome or root suckers. Vegetatively by hardwood or softwood cuttings, although softwood cuttings are far more successful at producing roots.