Vaccinium ovatum |
Vaccinium myrtillus |
|
---|---|---|
California huckleberry, evergreen huckelberry, evergreen huckleberry, winter huckleberry |
bilberry, dwarf bilberry, dwarf blueberry, low bilberry, low blueberry, myrtle blueberry, whortleberry |
|
Habit | Plants clump- or crown-forming; twigs ± terete, pilose. | Plants forming open colonies, 0.5–12 dm, rhizomatous; twigs green, conspicuously 3-angled, glabrous or minutely puberulent along grooves. |
Leaf | blades pale green abaxially, lustrous dark green adaxially, narrowly ovate, 21–29 × 8–12 mm, coriaceous, margins sharply serrate, surfaces glandular abaxially. |
blades bright green, broadly elliptic or ovate, 19–27 × 7–11 mm, margins sharply serrate, surfaces laxly glandular abaxially. |
Flowers | corolla pinkish, 3–5 mm; filaments hairy. |
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. |
Berries | black or blue, 6–8 mm diam. 2n = 24. |
purple-black or bluish black, rarely reddish or red, 7–9 mm diam. |
Seeds | ca. 1 mm. |
|
2n | = 24, 48. |
|
Vaccinium ovatum |
Vaccinium myrtillus |
|
Phenology | Flowering early spring-mid summer. | Flowering late spring–summer. |
Habitat | Edges of coniferous forests, also epiphytic on trunks of redwoods | Heaths, montane heaths, boggy barrens, degraded meadows, open coniferous forests, oak parklands, disturbed or open birch woods, hummocky seepage slopes, moraines |
Elevation | 0-30 m (0-100 ft) | 0-2600 m (0-8500 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; OR; WA; BC
|
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC; Greenland; Europe; e Asia (Japan)
|
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. 530. | FNA vol. 8, p. 523. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Pyxothamnus | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | V. ovatum var. saporosum | V. myrtillus subsp. oreophilum, V. myrtillus var. oreophilum, V. oreophilum |
Name authority | Pursh: Fl. Amer. Sept. 1: 290. 1813 , | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 349. (1753) |
Web links |
|