Vaccinium corymbosum |
Vaccinium myrtillus |
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bleuet en corymbe, high-bush blueberry, highbush huckleberry, New Jersey blueberry, smallflower blueberry, southern blueberry |
bilberry, dwarf bilberry, dwarf blueberry, low bilberry, low blueberry, myrtle blueberry, whortleberry |
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Habit | Plants erect, not colonial, sometimes suckering, 10–50 dm; twigs green, angular to terete, usually hairy in lines. | Plants forming open colonies, 0.5–12 dm, rhizomatous; twigs green, conspicuously 3-angled, glabrous or minutely puberulent along grooves. |
Leaves | usually deciduous; blade dark green, ovate to narrowly elliptic, 15–70 × 10–25 mm, subcoriaceous, margins sharply serrate or entire, surfaces glabrous or hairy abaxially. |
blades bright green, broadly elliptic or ovate, 19–27 × 7–11 mm, margins sharply serrate, surfaces laxly glandular abaxially. |
Flowers | calyx green, glabrous; corolla white to pink, ± cylindric, 5–12 mm; filaments usually ciliate. |
calyx green, lobes ± recurved (or absent and margins of tube sinuate), deltate, 0.4–0.6 mm, glabrous; corolla pink, cream, or greenish white, globose, 3–5 × 5–7 mm, thin, glaucous; filaments glabrous. |
Berries | dull black to blue, glaucous, 4–12 mm diam., glabrous. |
purple-black or bluish black, rarely reddish or red, 7–9 mm diam. |
Seeds | 10–20(–25), ca. 1.2 mm. |
ca. 1 mm. |
2n | = 24, 48, 72. |
= 24, 48. |
Vaccinium corymbosum |
Vaccinium myrtillus |
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Phenology | Flowering spring(-early summer). | Flowering late spring–summer. |
Habitat | Open swamps, bogs, sandy margins of lakes, ponds, and streams, flatwoods, gray-birch scrub, pine barrens, mires, bay heads, upland ericaceous meadows, upland woods, ravines, mountain summits | Heaths, montane heaths, boggy barrens, degraded meadows, open coniferous forests, oak parklands, disturbed or open birch woods, hummocky seepage slopes, moraines |
Elevation | 0-1600 m (0-5200 ft) | 0-2600 m (0-8500 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; CT; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; BC; NB; NS; ON; QC [Introduced in Europe (Britain, The Netherlands), e Asia (Japan), Pacific Islands (New Zealand)]
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AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC; Greenland; Europe; e Asia (Japan)
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Discussion | Every morphological variant of the high-bush blueberry has been named formally at one time or another. At least 25 such taxa have been raised to specific rank; none is distinct throughout its putative range nor has the properties normally associated with biological species, including Vaccinium atrococcum and V. elliottii. See S. P. Vander Kloet (1980) for a complete list of synonyms. Feral populations readily become established wherever cultivars have been planted, e.g., Britain, British Columbia, Japan, Missouri, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Washington, and Wisconsin. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Vaccinium myrtillus fruits are popular in Europe and are known to possess antioxidants and other compounds beneficial to vascular health. Berries in Europe are extensively harvested from wild stands. In North America, the fruits were used by the Kootenai, Carrier, Shuswap, and other native tribes. The small plant and fruit sizes create challenges for commercialization in North America. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 526. | FNA vol. 8, p. 523. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cyanococcus amoenus, Cyanococcus atrococcus, Cyanococcus corymbosus, Cyanococcus cuthbertii, Cyanococcus elliottii, Cyanococcus fuscatus, Cyanococcus holophyllus, Cyanococcus margarettae, Cyanococcus simulatus, Cyanococcus virgatus, V. amoenum, V. atrococcum, V. australe, V. constablaei, V. corymbosum var. albiflorum, V. corymbosum var. glabrum, V. elliottii, V. formosum, V. fuscatum, V. simulatum, V. virgatum | V. myrtillus subsp. oreophilum, V. myrtillus var. oreophilum, V. oreophilum |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. (1753) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 349. (1753) |
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