Vaccinium myrtillus |
Vaccinium corymbosum |
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bilberry, dwarf bilberry, dwarf blueberry, low bilberry, low blueberry, myrtle blueberry, whortleberry |
bleuet en corymbe, high-bush blueberry, highbush huckleberry, New Jersey blueberry, smallflower blueberry, southern blueberry |
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Habit | Plants forming open colonies, 0.5–12 dm, rhizomatous; twigs green, conspicuously 3-angled, glabrous or minutely puberulent along grooves. | Plants erect, not colonial, sometimes suckering, 10–50 dm; twigs green, angular to terete, usually hairy in lines. |
Leaves | blades bright green, broadly elliptic or ovate, 19–27 × 7–11 mm, margins sharply serrate, surfaces laxly glandular abaxially. |
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. |
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, glabrous; corolla white to pink, ± cylindric, 5–12 mm; filaments usually ciliate. |
Berries | purple-black or bluish black, rarely reddish or red, 7–9 mm diam. |
dull black to blue, glaucous, 4–12 mm diam., glabrous. |
Seeds | ca. 1 mm. |
10–20(–25), ca. 1.2 mm. |
2n | = 24, 48. |
= 24, 48, 72. |
Vaccinium myrtillus |
Vaccinium corymbosum |
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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 | 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 | 0-2600 m (0-8500 ft) | 0-1600 m (0-5200 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC; Greenland; Europe; e Asia (Japan)
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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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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.) |
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. 523. | FNA vol. 8, p. 526. |
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 | 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 | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 349. (1753) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. (1753) |
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