Vaccinium tenellum |
Vaccinium membranaceum |
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small black blueberry, southern blueberry |
big huckleberry, black blueberry, black huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, tall huckleberry, thin-leaf huckleberry |
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Habit | Plants forming extensive, open colonies, 1–7.5 dm; twigs yellowish green, ± terete, hairy. | 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. |
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 usually green, broadly elliptic to ovate, 25–50 × 11–23 mm, margins sharply serrate, surfaces glandular abaxially. |
Flowers | calyx pale green, sometimes hairy; corolla usually white tinged with pink, cylindric, 5–9 mm; filaments ± hairy. |
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 | black, 6–8 mm diam., sometimes puberulent. |
shiny or dull black or deep purple, rarely red or white, 9–13 mm diam. |
Seeds | 5–25, ca. 1 mm. |
ca. 1 mm. |
2n | = 24. |
= 48. |
Vaccinium tenellum |
Vaccinium membranaceum |
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Phenology | Flowering winter–spring. | Flowering late spring–early summer. |
Habitat | Dry sand hills, pine barrens, scrubby oak woods, open pine parkland, and flatwoods subject to burning | Coniferous woods, especially cut-over stands, talus slopes, subalpine fir forests, alpine heaths |
Elevation | 0-200 m (0-700 ft) | 900-3500 m (3000-11500 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; VA
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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. 528. | FNA vol. 8, p. 523. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Cyanococcus tenellus | V. coccineum, V. globulare, V. membranaceum var. rigidum |
Name authority | Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 12. 1789 , | Douglas ex Torrey: in C. Wilkes et al., U.S. Expl. Exped. 17: 377. (1874) |
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