Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Vaccinium scoparium

Vaccinium macrocarpon

grouse whortleberry, grouseberry, little-leaf huckleberry

American cranberry, canneberge à gros fruits, cranberry, cultivated cranberry, large cranberry
Habit Plants forming extensive colonies, 0.7–2 dm, rhizomatous; twigs green, angled, glabrous; ultimate branches compact, often forming broomlike clumps or tufts. Plants often ascending, shoots 0.4–1.5 dm.
Leaf

blades pale green abaxially, elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, 7–11 × 4–6 mm, margins finely serrulate, surfaces glabrous.

blades glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, usually narrowly elliptic to elliptic, rarely oblong, 5–18 × 2–55 mm, margins entire, slightly revolute.
Inflorescences

in axils of leaflike bracts at base of current year’s shoots.
Pedicels

nodding, slender, 2–3 cm, bracteolate;

bracteoles 2, greenish white, scalelike, 1–2 mm wide.
Flowers

calyx pale green, lobes vestigial, glabrous;

corolla pink, globose to urceolate, 3–4 × 3–4 mm, thin, glaucous;

filaments glabrous.

calyx lobes relatively small;

corolla strongly reflexed at anthesis, white to pink;

filaments hairy;

anther tubules 1–2 mm.
Berries

red, ± translucent, or bluish purple, 4–6 mm diam.

red to pink, 9–14 mm diam., smooth.
Seeds

ca. 1 mm.

2n

= 24.

Vaccinium scoparium

Vaccinium macrocarpon
Phenology Flowering early-mid summer. Flowering late spring–early summer.
Habitat Alpine and subalpine meadows, heaths, talus slopes Bogs, swamps, mires, wet shores and headlands
Elevation 700-3000 m (2300-9800 ft) 0-1400 m (0-4600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CT; DC; DE; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; BC; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM [Introduced in Europe]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The soft, tart, bright red berries of Vaccinium scoparium, to 6 mm diameter, have fair to good flavor and were gathered and eaten raw by the Kootenay, Okanogan, Shuswap, and other Indian tribes. Harvesting was probably done using wooden or fish-bone combs. Small fruit size, low yields, and difficult harvesting make commercial prospects for V. scoparium questionable.

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

Vaccinium macrocarpon is introduced and escaping elsewhere (British Columbia, Oregon, Washington) with respect to its normal range in eastern North America.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 522. FNA vol. 8, p. 519.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Oxycoccus
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. ovalifolium, V. ovatum, V. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, 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. hirsutum, 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. myrtillus var. microphyllum, V. erythrococcum Oxycoccus macrocarpus
Name authority Leiberg ex Coville: Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 5: 103. 1897 , Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 13, plate 7. (1789)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers