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

hairy blueberry, small cluster blueberry, woolly berry, wooly berry

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 open colonies, 2–5(–7.5) dm; twigs green, slightly angled, pilose 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 green, elliptic, 23–62 × 10–36 mm, subcoriaceous, margins entire, surfaces densely hairy, 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, glandular-hairy;

corolla white, cylindric, 5–9 mm, (glandular-hairy);

filaments hairy.

Berries

blue, dull purplish black, or black, sometimes glaucous, 8–10 mm diam.

black, 7–9 mm diam., hairy.

Seeds

ca. 1 mm.

3–9, ca. 1 mm.

2n

= 24, 48.

= 48.

Vaccinium ovalifolium

Vaccinium hirsutum

Phenology Flowering spring-mid summer(-late summer). Flowering 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 Dry oak-pine ridges and mountain meadows
Elevation 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) 600-1500 m (2000-4900 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
GA; NC; TN
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vaccinium hirsutum is uncommon (but not threatened) in Tennessee, rare in North Carolina, and probably extirpated in Georgia.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 8, p. 524. 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. myrtillus, 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. 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 Cyanococcus hirsutus
Name authority Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 36: Vaccinium no. 2. (1817) Buckley: Amer. J. Sci. Arts 45: 175. 1843 ,
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