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hairy blueberry, small cluster blueberry, woolly berry, wooly berry

Habit Plants forming open colonies, 2–5(–7.5) dm; twigs green, slightly angled, pilose or hairy. Shrubs, usually erect, 0.1-50 dm, rhizomatous, (twigs of previous season verrucose, perennating buds dimorphic).
Leaves

deciduous;

blade green, elliptic, 23–62 × 10–36 mm, subcoriaceous, margins entire, surfaces densely hairy, 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, glandular-hairy;

corolla white, cylindric, 5–9 mm, (glandular-hairy);

filaments hairy.

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

black, 7–9 mm diam., hairy.

pseudo 10-locular.

Seeds

3–9, ca. 1 mm.

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

2n

= 48.

= 24, 48, 72.

Vaccinium hirsutum

Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Dry oak-pine ridges and mountain meadows
Elevation 600-1500 m (2000-4900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
GA; NC; TN
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America
Discussion

Vaccinium hirsutum is uncommon (but not threatened) in Tennessee, rare in North Carolina, and probably extirpated in Georgia.

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

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. 529. FNA vol. 8, p. 526.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium
Sibling taxa
V. angustifolium, V. arboreum, V. boreale, V. cespitosum, V. corymbosum, V. crassifolium, V. darrowii, V. deliciosum, V. erythrocarpum, 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
Synonyms Cyanococcus hirsutus
Name authority Buckley: Amer. J. Sci. Arts 45: 175. 1843 , A. Gray: Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 3: 53. (1846)
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