Flora of North America species comparison

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Vaccinium boreale

Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus

bleuet boréal, northern blueberry, sweet hurts
Habit Plants forming small, dense colonies, 0.1–0.9 dm, (superficially rhizomatous); twigs green, (delicate), angled, (intricately branched), hairy in lines. Shrubs, usually erect, 0.1-50 dm, rhizomatous, (twigs of previous season verrucose, perennating buds dimorphic).
Leaves

deciduous;

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

usually deciduous, rarely persistent, (abaxial surface hairy or glabrous, adaxial surface usually glabrous).
Inflorescences

corymbs, terminal on axillary shoots from buds of previous season.
Pedicels

articulated with calyx tube.
Flowers

calyx green, glaucous, glabrous (sometimes ciliate);

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

filaments ciliate.

sepals 5;

petals 5, connate for nearly their entire lengths, corolla urceolate to cylindric;

stamens 10, included;

anthers without awns, tubules 2-4 mm, with terminal pores.
Berries

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

pseudo 10-locular.
Seeds

10–30, ca. 1.1 mm.

(4-)10-25(-40).
2n

= 24.

= 24, 48, 72.

Vaccinium boreale

Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus
Phenology Flowering late spring–early summer.
Habitat Headlands, open, rocky uplands, alpine heaths and meadows, forest-tundra. 0-2000 m
Distribution
from FNA
ME; NH; NY; VT; NB; NL; NS; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America
Discussion

Species 9 (9 in the flora).

Section Cyanococcus contains populations that are all homoploids, regardless of species, and are interfertile; naturally occurring hybrids have been described (S. P. Vander Kloet 1988 and references therein). The blueberries are endemic to North America; large-scale plantings elsewhere have resulted in the establishment of adventive populations.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 528. FNA vol. 8, p. 526.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium
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
Subordinate taxa
Name authority I. V. Hall & Aalders: Amer. J. Bot. 48: 200. 1961 , A. Gray: Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 3: 53. (1846)
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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