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small black blueberry, southern blueberry

airelle à feuilles ovées, Alaska blueberry, early blueberry, oval-leaf blueberry, oval-leaf huckleberry

Habit Plants forming extensive, open colonies, 1–7.5 dm; twigs yellowish green, ± terete, hairy. 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.
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 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).

Flowers

calyx pale green, sometimes hairy;

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

filaments ± hairy.

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.

Berries

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

blue, dull purplish black, or black, sometimes glaucous, 8–10 mm diam.

Seeds

5–25, ca. 1 mm.

ca. 1 mm.

2n

= 24.

= 24, 48.

Vaccinium tenellum

Vaccinium ovalifolium

Phenology Flowering winter–spring. Flowering spring-mid summer(-late summer).
Habitat Dry sand hills, pine barrens, scrubby oak woods, open pine parkland, and flatwoods subject to burning 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
Elevation 0-200 m (0-700 ft) 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; ID; MI; OR; SD; WA; AB; BC; NF; NS; ON; QC; YT; e Asia (c Japan, Kamchatka)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 528. FNA vol. 8, p. 524.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus
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. crassifolium, V. darrowii, V. deliciosum, V. erythrocarpum, V. hirsutum, V. macrocarpon, V. membranaceum, V. myrsinites, V. myrtilloides, V. myrtillus, V. ovatum, V. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. stamineum, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms Cyanococcus tenellus V. alaskaense
Name authority Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 12. 1789 , Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 36: Vaccinium no. 2. (1817)
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