Vaccinium myrtillus |
Vaccinium angustifolium |
|
---|---|---|
bilberry, dwarf bilberry, dwarf blueberry, low bilberry, low blueberry, myrtle blueberry, whortleberry |
bleuet à feuilles étroites, common lowbush blueberry, early low-bush blueberry, lowbush blueberry, sweet lowbush blueberry |
|
Habit | Plants forming open colonies, 0.5–12 dm, rhizomatous; twigs green, conspicuously 3-angled, glabrous or minutely puberulent along grooves. | Plants forming dense, extensive colonies, 1–3 dm; twigs of current season green to glaucous, ± angled, glabrous or hairy. |
Leaves | blades bright green, broadly elliptic or ovate, 19–27 × 7–11 mm, margins sharply serrate, surfaces laxly glandular abaxially. |
deciduous; blade dark to pale green or glaucous, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 15–41 × (5–)6–16(–20) mm, margins usually sharply, uniformly serrate (serrations sometimes minute, tipped with stipitate gland), surfaces glabrous or hairy, especially along abaxial midvein, eglandular abaxially. |
Flowers | 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. |
calyx green, glaucous, glabrous; corolla usually white, cylindric to urceolate, 4–6 mm; filaments ciliate; (tubules with introrse, elongate pores). |
Berries | purple-black or bluish black, rarely reddish or red, 7–9 mm diam. |
black or blue, rarely white, 3–12 mm diam., glabrous. |
Seeds | ca. 1 mm. |
(3–)10–15(–20), ca. 1.2 mm. |
2n | = 24, 48. |
= 48. |
Vaccinium myrtillus |
Vaccinium angustifolium |
|
Phenology | Flowering late spring–summer. | Flowering spring–early summer. |
Habitat | Heaths, montane heaths, boggy barrens, degraded meadows, open coniferous forests, oak parklands, disturbed or open birch woods, hummocky seepage slopes, moraines | Headlands, high moors, dry, sandy areas, peaty barrens, rocky outcroppings, pine barrens, oak parklands, regeneration forests, abandoned pastures and bogs |
Elevation | 0-2600 m (0-8500 ft) | 0-1900 m (0-6200 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC; Greenland; Europe; e Asia (Japan)
|
CT; DE; IA; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; MB; NB; NL; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM
|
Discussion | 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.) |
Vaccinium angustifolium is extensively harvested from cultivated and wild plants in New England (especially Maine) and in Quebec and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 523. | FNA vol. 8, p. 528. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | V. myrtillus subsp. oreophilum, V. myrtillus var. oreophilum, V. oreophilum | V. angustifolium var. hypolasium, V. angustifolium var. laevifolium, V. angustifolium var. nigrum, V. brittonii, V. lamarckii, V. nigrum, V. pensylvanicum var. nigrum |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 349. (1753) | Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 11. 1789 , |
Web links |