Flora of North America species comparison

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Gaylussacia

Gaylussacia frondosa

huckleberry

blue huckleberry, dangleberry
Habit Subshrubs or shrubs. Plants 7.5–20 dm, forming small to extensive colonies; branches spreading; twigs of current season pale green, glabrous or glabrate.
Stems

erect;

twigs glabrous or hairy, sometimes glandular.

Leaves

deciduous (G. brachycera persistent);

blade obovate or ovate to oblong or oblanceolate, membranous or coriaceous, margins entire or crenate (sometimes serrulate) [glandular-crenate], plane or revolute, glabrous or hairy;

venation reticulodromous.

petiole 2–3 mm;

blade greenish white, glaucescent abaxially, green to yellowish green, dull green adaxially, ovate to oblong, 2.5–5(–6) × 2–3 cm, subcoriaceous, base cuneate, margins entire, apex rounded to obtuse, surfaces short-hairy (hairs white) or glabrous, sessile-glandular abaxially.
Inflorescences

axillary or terminal racemes, 2–8-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary.

drooping, 2–4-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary, bracteate, 1–4.5 cm, glabrous or pilose;

bracts early-deciduous, leaflike or not, 5–6 mm, shorter than pedicels, sessile-glandular, sparsely hairy.
Pedicels

8–15(–20) mm, glabrous, sessile-glandular;

bracteoles 1–2, 1–2.5 mm, (sessile-glandular).
Flowers

sepals (4–)5, sometimes vestigial, connate basally, deltate (straight or inflexed in fruit);

petals 4–5, connate for nearly their entire lengths, greenish white or white to pink or orange to red, corolla urceolate, campanulate, or campanulate-conic, lobes much shorter than tube;

stamens 10, included, (slightly shorter than corolla);

filaments straight, flattened, glabrous or pilose, without spurs;

anthers without awns, dehiscent through narrowly oblong, terminal pores;

pistil 5–10-carpellate;

ovary inferior, 5- or 10-locular;

stigma capitate.

sepals 5, 1–1.2 mm, glabrous, sessile-glandular;

petals 5, corolla greenish white, campanulate-conic, 3–5 mm, lobes deltate, 1–1.4 mm;

filaments 0.5–1 mm, pilose;

anthers included (tips barely exserted), 2.5 mm, thecae not divergent distally;

ovary glabrous.
Fruits

drupaceous, ovoid to globose, fleshy.

Drupes

juicy, sweet, blue (sometimes black, rarely white), glaucescent, 5–8 mm diam., glabrous.
Seeds

(pyrenes) 10, ellipsoid;

testa stony, papillose (smooth in G. ursina).

1.5 mm.
x

= 12.

Gaylussacia

Gaylussacia frondosa
Phenology Flowering late spring.
Habitat Upland sites in deciduous oak-hickory woods and pine hardwoods, roadsides, pastures, and utility rights-of-way, moist to wet acidic shrub swamps and pocosins, streamhead ecotones, moist to wet pine savannas and flatwoods
Elevation 0-300 m (0-1000 ft)
Distribution
from USDA
e North America; South America (c, n Andes, e, se Brazil)
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CT; DE; GA; MA; MD; NC; NH; NJ; NY; PA; RI; SC; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Decachaena (Torrey & A. Gray) Lindley; Lasiococcus Small

Species ca. 50 (10 in the flora).

The genus Gaylussacia was organized into three sections by H. Sleumer (1967). The sections are: sect. Vitis-idaea (species 1) with coriaceous, persistent leaves lacking resinous dots; sect. Gaylussacia (species 2–5) with deciduous leaves with some stipitate-glandular hairs; and sect. Decamerium (species 6–10) with deciduous leaves and sessile glands. Molecular investigation by J. W. Floyd (2002) suggested these sections may not be entirely natural, and that the origin of the genus may be in North America, despite the greater diversity in South America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades 1-2.5 cm, margins crenate or serrulate, coriaceous, not sessile-glandular; leaves persistent [sect. Vitis-idaea].
G. brachycera
1. Leaf blades 1.9-6 cm, margins entire, membranous to subcoriaceous, sessile-glandular (or scattered stipitate-glandular-hairy); leaves deciduous [sect. Gaylussacia]
→ 2
2. Inflorescence bracts equaling or longer than pedicels, persistent; sepals, pedicels, bracts, and/or leaf blades stipitate-glandular-hairy
→ 3
2. Inflorescence bracts shorter than pedicels, early-deciduous; sepals, pedicels, bracts, and/or leaf blades not stipitate-glandular-hairy [sect. Decamerium]
→ 6
3. Corollas 3-5 mm; plants 1-3(-4) dm.
G. dumosa
3. Corollas 5.5-8.5 mm; plants 3-10(-15) dm
→ 4
4. Corollas 5.5-6.5 mm; anthers 2.5-3.2 mm; peaty montane seepage bogs, w North Carolina.
G. orocola
4. Corollas 6.5-8.5 mm; anthers 2.5-4.3 mm
→ 5
5. Adaxial leaf surfaces not sessile-glandular; ovary hairs 1-1.5 mm; e Gulf coastal plain, s Alabama, n Florida, sw Georgia, se Louisiana, s Mississippi.
G. mosieri
5. Adaxial leaf surfaces sessile-glandular; ovary hairs 0.3-0.5 mm; northeastern range, south to Maryland and Delaware, disjunct to North Carolina and South Carolina
G. bigeloviana
6. Leaf blades sessile-glandular-hairy on both surfaces; racemes 0.5-1.5 cm.
G. baccata
6. Leaf blades sessile-glandular hairy on abaxial surface only; racemes 0.7-4.5 cm
→ 7
7. Leaf blades membranous, green to yellowish green or reddish green adaxially, apex acute to acuminate.
G. ursina
7. Leaf blades subcoriaceous, green to glaucescent adaxially, apex rounded or obtuse
→ 8
8. Twigs of current season glabrous or glabrate; leaf blades glabrous or hairy abaxially, glaucescent; plants 7.5-20 dm; east coast, south to e Georgia.
G. frondosa
8. Twigs of current season densely hairy (hairs short); leaf blades sparsely to densely hairy abaxially, glaucous or glaucescent; plants 2-20 dm; se North Carolina and southward in coastal plain and west to Louisiana
→ 9
9. Leaf blades 2.5-4 × 1-2 cm, surfaces glabrous or sparsely short-hairy (longer hairs ca. 0.1 mm), glaucous abaxially; calyces glaucous; plants 2-6(-10) dm.
G. nana
9. Leaf blades 2.5-6 × 2-3 cm, surfaces densely short-hairy (longer hairs ca. 0.2 mm), glaucescent abaxially; calyces not glaucous; plants 7.5-20 dm.
G. tomentosa
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 530. Authors: Bruce A. Sorrie, Alan S. Weakley, Gordon C. Tucker. FNA vol. 8, p. 534.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Gaylussacia
Sibling taxa
G. baccata, G. bigeloviana, G. brachycera, G. dumosa, G. mosieri, G. nana, G. orocola, G. tomentosa, G. ursina
Subordinate taxa
G. baccata, G. bigeloviana, G. brachycera, G. dumosa, G. frondosa, G. mosieri, G. nana, G. orocola, G. tomentosa, G. ursina
Synonyms Decachaena frondosa, Vaccinium frondosum
Name authority Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 3(fol.): 215: plate 257. 1819, name conserved , (Linnaeus) Torrey & A. Gray: in J. Torrey, Fl. New York 1: 449. 1843 ,
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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