Vaccinium corymbosum |
Vaccinium vitis-idaea |
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bleuet en corymbe, high-bush blueberry, highbush huckleberry, New Jersey blueberry, smallflower blueberry, southern blueberry |
airelle vigne-d'ida, cowberry, foxberry, lingonberry, mountain cranberry, northern mountain cranberry, partridgeberry |
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Habit | Plants erect, not colonial, sometimes suckering, 10–50 dm; twigs green, angular to terete, usually hairy in lines. | Plants densely colonial, frequently mat-forming; twigs of previous year green, terete, puberulent, not verrucose. |
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 pale and glandular abaxially, bright green adaxially, elliptic to obovate, 5–18 × 3–9 mm, glaucous-coriaceous, margins entire, slightly revolute. |
Pedicels | 4–6 mm. |
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Flowers | calyx green, glabrous; corolla white to pink, ± cylindric, 5–12 mm; filaments usually ciliate. |
corolla pinkish white, 3–5 mm; filaments puberulent. |
Berries | dull black to blue, glaucous, 4–12 mm diam., glabrous. |
red, 8–10 mm diam. 2n = 24. |
Seeds | 10–20(–25), ca. 1.2 mm. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72. |
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Vaccinium corymbosum |
Vaccinium vitis-idaea |
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Phenology | Flowering spring(-early summer). | Flowering late spring–early 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 | Boreal taiga in jack-pine stands, muskegs, raised bogs, dry, rocky barrens, lichen woodlands, exposed habitats, heaths, high moors, headlands, tundras, cliffs, mountain summits |
Elevation | 0-1600 m (0-5200 ft) | 0-1800 m (0-5900 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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AK; CT; MA; ME; MI; MN; NH; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Greenland; n Eurasia; circumboreal
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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.) |
The distribution of Vaccinium vitis-idaea in North America extends from northwestern Greenland at 77° north latitude, south to Connecticut at 42° north latitude, and from 45° west longitude (southern tip of Greenland) west to 170° west longitude (Aleutian Islands); it is rare in Connecticut (not collected since the late 1800s), Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin. This species has been erroneously reported from New York; it hybridizes with V. myrtillus in northern Europe, producing V. ×intermedium Ruthe. The hybrid might be anticipated in North America, but the two species are not known to occur together anywhere in the flora area. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 526. | FNA vol. 8, p. 520. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Vitis-idaea |
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. vitis-idaea subsp. minus, V. vitis-idaea var. minus |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. (1753) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 351. (1753) |
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