Vaccinium ovalifolium |
Vaccinium membranaceum |
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airelle à feuilles ovées, Alaska blueberry, early blueberry, oval-leaf blueberry, oval-leaf huckleberry |
big huckleberry, black blueberry, black huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, tall huckleberry, thin-leaf huckleberry |
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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 small to extensive clumps, rarely crown-forming, 2–30 dm, not rhizomatous; twigs of current season yellow-green or reddish green, terete to slightly angled, glabrous or hairy in lines. |
Leaf | 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). |
blades usually green, broadly elliptic to ovate, 25–50 × 11–23 mm, margins sharply serrate, surfaces glandular 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, obscurely lobed, glabrous; corolla white, cream, yellowish pink, or bronze, globose to urceolate, 3–5 × 5–7 mm, thin, glaucous; filaments glabrous. |
Berries | blue, dull purplish black, or black, sometimes glaucous, 8–10 mm diam. |
shiny or dull black or deep purple, rarely red or white, 9–13 mm diam. |
Seeds | ca. 1 mm. |
ca. 1 mm. |
2n | = 24, 48. |
= 48. |
Vaccinium ovalifolium |
Vaccinium membranaceum |
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Phenology | Flowering spring-mid summer(-late summer). | Flowering late 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 | Coniferous woods, especially cut-over stands, talus slopes, subalpine fir forests, alpine heaths |
Elevation | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) | 900-3500 m (3000-11500 ft) |
Distribution |
AK; ID; MI; OR; SD; WA; AB; BC; NF; NS; ON; QC; YT; e Asia (c Japan, Kamchatka)
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; MI; MT; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; ON
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Discussion | Vaccinium membranaceum is, by far, the most widely commercially utilized western huckleberry for fruit and is harvested extensively from the wild. This species served as an especially important source of food for native peoples throughout western North America, and the dried berries were used for winter food and trade. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 524. | FNA vol. 8, p. 523. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | V. alaskaense | V. coccineum, V. globulare, V. membranaceum var. rigidum |
Name authority | Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 36: Vaccinium no. 2. (1817) | Douglas ex Torrey: in C. Wilkes et al., U.S. Expl. Exped. 17: 377. (1874) |
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