Flora of North America species comparison

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Vaccinium boreale

Vaccinium macrocarpon

bleuet boréal, northern blueberry, sweet hurts

American cranberry, canneberge à gros fruits, cranberry, cultivated cranberry, large cranberry
Habit Plants forming small, dense colonies, 0.1–0.9 dm, (superficially rhizomatous); twigs green, (delicate), angled, (intricately branched), hairy in lines. Plants often ascending, shoots 0.4–1.5 dm.
Leaves

deciduous;

blade bright green, narrowly elliptic, 8–21 × 2–6 mm, membranous, margins sharply, uniformly serrate, surfaces usually glabrous, eglandular abaxially.

blades glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, usually narrowly elliptic to elliptic, rarely oblong, 5–18 × 2–55 mm, margins entire, slightly revolute.
Inflorescences

in axils of leaflike bracts at base of current year’s shoots.
Pedicels

nodding, slender, 2–3 cm, bracteolate;

bracteoles 2, greenish white, scalelike, 1–2 mm wide.
Flowers

calyx green, glaucous, glabrous (sometimes ciliate);

corolla white to greenish white, cylindric, 3–4 mm;

filaments ciliate.

calyx lobes relatively small;

corolla strongly reflexed at anthesis, white to pink;

filaments hairy;

anther tubules 1–2 mm.
Berries

blue, glaucous, 3–5 mm diam., glabrous.

red to pink, 9–14 mm diam., smooth.
Seeds

10–30, ca. 1.1 mm.

2n

= 24.

= 24.

Vaccinium boreale

Vaccinium macrocarpon
Phenology Flowering late spring–early summer. Flowering late spring–early summer.
Habitat Headlands, open, rocky uplands, alpine heaths and meadows, forest-tundra. 0-2000 m Bogs, swamps, mires, wet shores and headlands
Elevation 0-1400 m (0-4600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ME; NH; NY; VT; NB; NL; NS; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CT; DC; DE; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; BC; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM [Introduced in Europe]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vaccinium macrocarpon is introduced and escaping elsewhere (British Columbia, Oregon, Washington) with respect to its normal range in eastern North America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 528. FNA vol. 8, p. 519.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Oxycoccus
Sibling taxa
V. angustifolium, V. arboreum, 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. 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
Synonyms Oxycoccus macrocarpus
Name authority I. V. Hall & Aalders: Amer. J. Bot. 48: 200. 1961 , Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 13, plate 7. (1789)
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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