Vaccinium ovalifolium |
Vaccinium vitis-idaea |
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airelle à feuilles ovées, Alaska blueberry, early blueberry, oval-leaf blueberry, oval-leaf huckleberry |
airelle vigne-d'ida, cowberry, foxberry, lingonberry, mountain cranberry, northern mountain cranberry, partridgeberry |
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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 densely colonial, frequently mat-forming; twigs of previous year green, terete, puberulent, not verrucose. |
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 pale and glandular abaxially, bright green adaxially, elliptic to obovate, 5–18 × 3–9 mm, glaucous-coriaceous, margins entire, slightly revolute. |
Pedicels | 4–6 mm. |
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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. |
corolla pinkish white, 3–5 mm; filaments puberulent. |
Berries | blue, dull purplish black, or black, sometimes glaucous, 8–10 mm diam. |
red, 8–10 mm diam. 2n = 24. |
Seeds | ca. 1 mm. |
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2n | = 24, 48. |
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Vaccinium ovalifolium |
Vaccinium vitis-idaea |
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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 | Boreal taiga in jack-pine stands, muskegs, raised bogs, dry, rocky barrens, lichen woodlands, exposed habitats, heaths, high moors, headlands, tundras, cliffs, mountain summits |
Elevation | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) | 0-1800 m (0-5900 ft) |
Distribution |
AK; ID; MI; OR; SD; WA; AB; BC; NF; NS; ON; QC; YT; e Asia (c Japan, Kamchatka)
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AK; CT; MA; ME; MI; MN; NH; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Greenland; n Eurasia; circumboreal
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Discussion | The distribution of Vaccinium vitis-idaea in North America extends from northwestern Greenland at 77° north latitude, south to Connecticut at 42° north latitude, and from 45° west longitude (southern tip of Greenland) west to 170° west longitude (Aleutian Islands); it is rare in Connecticut (not collected since the late 1800s), Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin. This species has been erroneously reported from New York; it hybridizes with V. myrtillus in northern Europe, producing V. ×intermedium Ruthe. The hybrid might be anticipated in North America, but the two species are not known to occur together anywhere in the flora area. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 524. | FNA vol. 8, p. 520. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Vitis-idaea |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | V. alaskaense | V. vitis-idaea subsp. minus, V. vitis-idaea var. minus |
Name authority | Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 36: Vaccinium no. 2. (1817) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 351. (1753) |
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