Flora of North America species comparison

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Vaccinium macrocarpon

Vaccinium corymbosum

American cranberry, canneberge à gros fruits, cranberry, cultivated cranberry, large cranberry

bleuet en corymbe, high-bush blueberry, highbush huckleberry, New Jersey blueberry, smallflower blueberry, southern blueberry
Habit Plants often ascending, shoots 0.4–1.5 dm. Plants erect, not colonial, sometimes suckering, 10–50 dm; twigs green, angular to terete, usually hairy in lines.
Leaves

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

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.
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 lobes relatively small;

corolla strongly reflexed at anthesis, white to pink;

filaments hairy;

anther tubules 1–2 mm.

calyx green, glabrous;

corolla white to pink, ± cylindric, 5–12 mm;

filaments usually ciliate.
Berries

red to pink, 9–14 mm diam., smooth.

dull black to blue, glaucous, 4–12 mm diam., glabrous.
Seeds

10–20(–25), ca. 1.2 mm.
2n

= 24.

= 24, 48, 72.

Vaccinium macrocarpon

Vaccinium corymbosum
Phenology Flowering late spring–early summer. Flowering spring(-early summer).
Habitat Bogs, swamps, mires, wet shores and headlands 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
Elevation 0-1400 m (0-4600 ft) 0-1600 m (0-5200 ft)
Distribution
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]
from FNA
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)]
[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.)

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.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 519. FNA vol. 8, p. 526.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Oxycoccus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus
Sibling taxa
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
V. angustifolium, V. arboreum, V. boreale, V. cespitosum, 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
Synonyms Oxycoccus macrocarpus 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
Name authority Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 13, plate 7. (1789) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. (1753)
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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