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airelle à feuilles ovées, Alaska blueberry, early blueberry, oval-leaf blueberry, oval-leaf huckleberry

bleuet à feuilles étroites, common lowbush blueberry, early low-bush blueberry, lowbush blueberry, sweet lowbush blueberry

Habit Plants crown-forming, clumped, suckering when disturbed, rarely forming extensive colonies, 3–40 dm, not rhizomatous; twigs yellow-green or golden brown, glaucous, usually terete, sometimes somewhat angled, glabrous, sometimes hairy in lines. Plants forming dense, extensive colonies, 1–3 dm; twigs of current season green to glaucous, ± angled, glabrous or hairy.
Leaves

blades pale green or glaucous abaxially, slightly darker pale green adaxially, ovate to elliptic, rarely obovate, 25–39 × 16–20 mm, margins entire to obscurely serrate, abaxial surface glabrous, eglandular (sometimes hairy or glandular along midvein), adaxial surface usually glabrous (sometimes hairy and/or glandular).

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 pale green or glaucous, lobes vestigial or absent, glabrous;

corolla pink, bronze-pink, or greenish white, globose, sometimes urceolate, 5–7 × 4–5 mm, thin, glaucous;

filaments glabrous or pilose basally.

calyx green, glaucous, glabrous;

corolla usually white, cylindric to urceolate, 4–6 mm;

filaments ciliate; (tubules with introrse, elongate pores).

Berries

blue, dull purplish black, or black, sometimes glaucous, 8–10 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 ovalifolium

Vaccinium angustifolium

Phenology Flowering spring-mid summer(-late summer). Flowering spring–early summer.
Habitat Moist or mesic coniferous woods, transitional habitats adjacent to these coniferous stands, cut-over coniferous woods, verges of road cuts, margins of coniferous woods, peaty slopes Headlands, high moors, dry, sandy areas, peaty barrens, rocky outcroppings, pine barrens, oak parklands, regeneration forests, abandoned pastures and bogs
Elevation 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) 0-1900 m (0-6200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; ID; MI; OR; SD; WA; AB; BC; NF; NS; ON; QC; YT; e Asia (c Japan, Kamchatka)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
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
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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. 524. FNA vol. 8, p. 528.
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. myrtillus, V. ovatum, V. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
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. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms V. alaskaense V. angustifolium var. hypolasium, V. angustifolium var. laevifolium, V. angustifolium var. nigrum, V. brittonii, V. lamarckii, V. nigrum, V. pensylvanicum var. nigrum
Name authority Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 36: Vaccinium no. 2. (1817) Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 11. 1789 ,
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