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small black blueberry, southern blueberry

creeping blueberry

Habit Plants forming extensive, open colonies, 1–7.5 dm; twigs yellowish green, ± terete, hairy. Plants extensively mat-forming (often by layering), with erect branches from lateral buds, rooting and/or swelling into woody burls at nodes; twigs of current year reddish green, terete, finely hairy, not verrucose.
Leaves

deciduous, rarely persistent;

blade green, spatulate to elliptic, 13–40 × 3–17 mm, subcoriaceous, margins sharply to obscurely serrate, surfaces glandular abaxially, hairy especially when young, rarely glabrous.

blades dark green, elliptic to obovate, (10–)12–15(–39) × (4–)5–7(–24) mm, coriaceous, margins ± entire, surfaces glabrescent.

Pedicels

0.1–0.3 cm.

Flowers

calyx pale green, sometimes hairy;

corolla usually white tinged with pink, cylindric, 5–9 mm;

filaments ± hairy.

calyx lobes distinct;

corolla usually white, 3–5 mm;

filaments ciliate.

Berries

black, 6–8 mm diam., sometimes puberulent.

black, 6–8 mm diam., insipid.

Seeds

5–25, ca. 1 mm.

2n

= 24.

= 24.

Vaccinium tenellum

Vaccinium crassifolium

Phenology Flowering winter–spring. Flowering late spring.
Habitat Dry sand hills, pine barrens, scrubby oak woods, open pine parkland, and flatwoods subject to burning Coastal plain, open pine flatwoods, pine barrens, pocosin ecotones and associated disturbed areas, road cuts, fire trails, mown roadsides
Elevation 0-200 m (0-700 ft) 0-200 m (0-700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
GA; NC; SC; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 528. FNA vol. 8, p. 525.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Herpothamnus
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. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
V. angustifolium, V. arboreum, V. boreale, V. cespitosum, V. corymbosum, 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. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms Cyanococcus tenellus Herpothamnus crassifolius, V. crassifolium subsp. sempervirens, V. sempervirens
Name authority Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 12. 1789 , Andrews: Bot. Repos. 2: plate 105. (1800)
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