Common English names include huckleberry (shared with plants in several other genera) and "dangleberry".Gaylussacia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) species including Coleophora gaylussaciella (which feeds exclusively on Gaylussacia) and Coleophora multicristatella.Gaylussacia is named in honor of the French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850).[5] A 2002 paper found that molecular data did not support past divisions of Gaylussacia into sections.[4] Pliocene seed and fruit fossils of †Gaylussacia rhenana are described from sand-filled river-channels in the brown coal pit of Fortuna-Garsdorf near Bergheim, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.