Flora of North America species comparison

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Vaccinium myrsinites

Vaccinium oxycoccos

Florida evergreen blueberry, shiny blueberry

bog cranberry, canneberge commune, small cranberry, swamp cranberry, wild cranberry
Habit Plants forming extensive open colonies, 1.4–10 dm; twigs bright green, ± angled, hairy in lines. Plants trailing, shoots 0.1–0.3(–0.5) dm.
Leaves

persistent for 1+ years;

blade green, elliptic, 5–9 × 3–5 mm, coriaceous, margins ± serrulate, surfaces glandular abaxially.

blades glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, ovate, sometimes elliptic, 3–10 × 1–5 mm, coriaceous, margins entire, strongly revolute.
Inflorescences

in axils of leaflike bracts at base of previous year’s or older shoots, (leafy portion often failing to elongate).
Pedicels

nodding, slender, 2–3 cm, bracteolate or not;

bracteoles 1–5, reddish, scalelike, to 1 mm wide.
Flowers

calyx pinkish white, becoming greenish, glabrous;

corolla white to pink or red, ± urceolate, 4–8 mm;

filaments ciliate along margins.

calyx lobes relatively small;

corolla strongly reflexed at anthesis, white to deep pink;

filaments hairy;

anther tubules 2–2.5 mm.
Berries

black, 7–9 mm diam., glabrous.

deep red, red-spotted at first, 6–12 mm diam., smooth.
Seeds

4–13, ca. 1 mm.

2n

= 24, 48.

= 24, 48, 72.

Vaccinium myrsinites

Vaccinium oxycoccos
Phenology Flowering winter–spring. Flowering early summer.
Habitat Flatwoods, sand-pine scrub, oak-palmetto scrub, scrubby flatwoods, rosemary balds Half buried in Sphagnum hummocks in bogs, fens, muskeg, arctic-alpine tundra
Elevation 0-30 m (0-100 ft) 0-1500 m (0-4900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; SC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; CT; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; VT; WA; WI; WV; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Greenland; n Europe; n Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vaccinium oxycoccos is interruptedly circumboreal (absent from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, including Baffin Island) extending southward in North America to California in the Cascade Range and to West Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains.

In Europe, some chromosome races of Vaccinium oxycoccos have been given specific rank (S. P. Vander Kloet 1983) at one time or another; unfortunately, hexaploids cannot be differentiated consistently from diploids or tetraploids using morphological features such as leaf indumentum or bract size.

On most vines, especially north of 50° north latitude, the leafy portion of the fertile shoot fails to develop, giving the illusion that Vaccinium oxycoccos has an inflorescence comprising a short rachis bearing flowers on a slender pedicel.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 527. FNA vol. 8, p. 519.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Oxycoccus
Sibling taxa
V. angustifolium, V. arboreum, V. boreale, V. cespitosum, V. corymbosum, V. crassifolium, V. darrowii, V. deliciosum, V. erythrocarpum, V. hirsutum, V. macrocarpon, V. membranaceum, 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. 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. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms Cyanococcus myrsinites, V. nitidum Oxycoccus hagerupii, Oxycoccus intermedius, Oxycoccus microcarpus, Oxycoccus ovalifolius, Oxycoccus oxycoccos, Oxycoccus palustris, Oxycoccus palustris var. intermedius, Oxycoccus palustris subsp. microphyllus, Oxycoccus palustris var. ovalifolius, Oxycoccus quadripetalus, Oxycoccus quadripetalus var. microphyllus, V. microcarpum, V. oxycoccos var. intermedium, V. oxycoccos subsp. microphyllum, V. oxycoccos var. microphyllum, V. oxycoccos var. ovalifolium
Name authority Lamarck: in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl. 1: 73. (1783) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 351. 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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