Flora of North America species comparison

erect;

twigs glabrous or puberulent.

erect, arching, spreading, creeping, or procumbent.

deciduous;

blade elliptic-oblong to elliptic, ovate, or obovate, ± chartaceous, margins irregularly compound-serrate or serrulate, especially distally, or entire (sometimes fringed with elongate hairs, especially when juvenile or on stump sprouts), plane, surfaces multicellular elongate-hairy (hairs stout) on midvein (rarely also secondary veins) abaxially, sometimes such hairs also on midvein and lamina adaxially, or such hairs absent, and ± sparsely unicellular-hairy on both surfaces of midvein or such hairs absent;

venation brochidodromous.

deciduous or persistent, alternate, sometimes pseudoverticillate (Pieris);

petiole usually present, sometimes absent (some species of Vaccinium);

blade plane, abaxial groove absent.

terminal panicles composed of arching-declinate racemes or secondary panicles, 15–50-flowered, (borne on shoots of current season).

usually axillary, sometimes terminal, usually panicles or racemes, sometimes corymbs or fascicles, sometimes solitary flowers, (borne on leafy twigs, except Zenobia on leafless twigs);

perulae absent;

bracts much shorter than sepals (sometimes absent).

bracteoles 2, medial or distal.

sepals 5, connate slightly to 1/2 their lengths, lanceolate;

petals 5, connate ca. 3/4 their lengths, white, corolla urceolate to cylindric-urceolate, lobes much shorter than tube, (densely unicellular-hairy, hairs short to elongate, crisped to straight);

stamens 10, slightly exserted;

filaments straight, flat, hairy, without spurs;

anthers without awns, dehiscent by slitlike pores, with white line of disintegration tissue on each lobe abaxially;

pistil 5-carpellate;

ovary 5-locular;

stigma capitate-truncate.

pendulous;

perianth and androecium hypogynous or epigynous (Gaylussacia, Vaccinium);

sepals (4-)5[-8];

petals 4-5(-6), connate (rarely distinct or nearly so in some species of Vaccinium), corolla deciduous, campanulate, cylindric, or urceolate, lobes usually much shorter (sometimes longer) than tube;

intrastaminal nectary disc absent or present;

stamens 8-10[-16];

anthers dehiscent by terminal pores or short slits;

ovary 5- or 10-locular;

placentation axile;

style straight.

capsular, ovoid, (with very slightly thickened sutures), dry.

capsular, dehiscence loculicidal, or baccate or drupaceous, indehiscent.

25–100, narrowly oblong, (tailed);

testa cells elongate.

2-300, distinct, ovoid or obovoid to ellipsoid, lanceoloid, or conic, to angular or wedge- or crescent-shaped, usually not winged, sometimes slightly winged or tailed.

= 12.