The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

bilberry, dwarf bilberry, dwarf blueberry, low bilberry, low blueberry, myrtle blueberry, whortleberry

bleuet fausse-myrtille, sour-top blueberry, sourtop, velvet-leaf blueberry, velvetleaf huckleberry

Habit Plants forming open colonies, 0.5–12 dm, rhizomatous; twigs green, conspicuously 3-angled, glabrous or minutely puberulent along grooves. Plants forming ± open colonies, 1–11.5 dm; twigs greenish brown, terete, pilose or hairy.
Leaves

blades bright green, broadly elliptic or ovate, 19–27 × 7–11 mm, margins sharply serrate, surfaces laxly glandular abaxially.

deciduous;

blade green, elliptic, 23–35 × 8–16 mm, membranous to subcoriaceous, margins entire, surfaces ± densely hairy (sometimes mostly on veins), eglandular, sometimes glabrescent.

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, (eglandular);

corolla greenish white to pink, urceolate, 3–5 mm, (eglandular);

filaments usually hairy.

Berries

purple-black or bluish black, rarely reddish or red, 7–9 mm diam.

blue, glaucous, 6–8 mm diam., glabrous.

Seeds

ca. 1 mm.

10–40, ca. 1 mm.

2n

= 24, 48.

= 24.

Vaccinium myrtillus

Vaccinium myrtilloides

Phenology Flowering late spring–summer. Flowering late 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 or disturbed sites in boreal forest, muskegs, bogs, barrens, headlands, outcrops, mountain meadows
Elevation 0-2600 m (0-8500 ft) 0-1700 m (0-5600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC; Greenland; Europe; e Asia (Japan)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CT; IA; IL; IN; MA; ME; MN; MT; NH; NY; OH; PA; VT; WI; WV; AB; BC; LB; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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.)

Source FNA vol. 8, p. 523. FNA vol. 8, p. 529.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus 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. macrocarpon, V. membranaceum, V. myrsinites, V. myrtilloides, 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. myrtillus, V. ovalifolium, V. ovatum, V. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms V. myrtillus subsp. oreophilum, V. myrtillus var. oreophilum, V. oreophilum Cyanococcus canadensis, V. angustifolium var. myrtilloides, V. canadense
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 349. (1753) Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 234. 1803 ,
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