The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

bleuet à feuilles étroites, common lowbush blueberry, early low-bush blueberry, lowbush blueberry, sweet lowbush blueberry

airelle des marécages, alpine blueberry, blueberry, bog bilberry, bog blueberry

Habit Plants forming dense, extensive colonies, 1–3 dm; twigs of current season green to glaucous, ± angled, glabrous or hairy. Plants forming dense mats or open, extensive colonies; twigs of current season pale green, terete, glabrous or faintly puberulent, not verrucose.
Leaves

deciduous;

blade dark to pale green or glaucous, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 15–41 × (5–)6–16(–20) mm, margins usually sharply, uniformly serrate (serrations sometimes minute, tipped with stipitate gland), surfaces glabrous or hairy, especially along abaxial midvein, eglandular abaxially.

blades usually glaucous abaxially, green to glaucous adaxially, orbiculate, ovate, or obovate to narrowly elliptic, 8–14 × 3–7 mm, membranous, margins entire, surfaces often faintly puberulent, sometimes hairy throughout.

Flowers

calyx green, glaucous, glabrous;

corolla usually white, cylindric to urceolate, 4–6 mm;

filaments ciliate; (tubules with introrse, elongate pores).

sepals usually distinct;

corolla white to pink, 3–4(–5) mm, lobes 0.3–0.4 mm;

filaments glabrous.

Berries

black or blue, rarely white, 3–12 mm diam., glabrous.

blue, 6–8 mm diam., glaucous.

Seeds

(3–)10–15(–20), ca. 1.2 mm.

2n

= 48.

= 24, 48, 72.

Vaccinium angustifolium

Vaccinium uliginosum

Phenology Flowering spring–early summer. Flowering Jun–Jul.
Habitat Headlands, high moors, dry, sandy areas, peaty barrens, rocky outcroppings, pine barrens, oak parklands, regeneration forests, abandoned pastures and bogs Wet or dry acidic sites in boreal taiga, tundras, and alpine thickets and krummholz
Elevation 0-1900 m (0-6200 ft) 0-2200 m (0-7200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CT; DE; IA; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; MB; NB; NL; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; ME; MI; MN; MT; NH; NV; NY; OR; UT; VT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Greenland; n Eurasia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vaccinium angustifolium is extensively harvested from cultivated and wild plants in New England (especially Maine) and in Quebec and the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Vaccinium uliginosum is transcontinental in North America between 60° and 70° north latitude; farther north it is rare, especially in the Queen Elizabeth Islands. To the southwest, it is found as far as northern California and northwestern Utah. The summits of the White Mountains of New Hampshire form its southernmost limit in eastern North America. This wide-ranging plant shows considerable variation, notably in floral morphology. Subspecies have been recognized (cf. S. B. Young 1970); a review of morphological variation by H. J. Warr (1981) did not support the distinctiveness of infraspecific taxa.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 8, p. 528. FNA vol. 8, p. 518.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Vaccinium
Sibling taxa
V. arboreum, V. boreale, V. cespitosum, V. corymbosum, V. crassifolium, V. darrowii, V. deliciosum, V. erythrocarpum, V. hirsutum, V. macrocarpon, V. membranaceum, V. myrsinites, V. myrtilloides, V. myrtillus, V. ovalifolium, V. ovatum, V. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
V. angustifolium, V. arboreum, V. boreale, V. cespitosum, V. corymbosum, V. crassifolium, V. darrowii, V. deliciosum, V. erythrocarpum, V. hirsutum, V. macrocarpon, V. membranaceum, V. myrsinites, V. myrtilloides, V. myrtillus, V. ovalifolium, V. ovatum, V. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms V. angustifolium var. hypolasium, V. angustifolium var. laevifolium, V. angustifolium var. nigrum, V. brittonii, V. lamarckii, V. nigrum, V. pensylvanicum var. nigrum V. gaultherioides, V. occidentale, V. uliginosum subsp. alpinum, V. uliginosum var. alpinum, V. uliginosum subsp. gaultherioides, V. uliginosum subsp. microphyllum, V. uliginosum subsp. occidentale, V. uliginosum var. occidentale, V. uliginosum subsp. pedris, V. uliginosum subsp. pubescens, V. uliginosum var. salicinum
Name authority Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 11. 1789 , Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. 1753 ,
Web links