Vaccinium tenellum
Vaccinium scoparium
small black blueberry, southern blueberry
grouse whortleberry, grouseberry, little-leaf huckleberry
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 abaxially, elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, 7–11 × 4–6 mm, margins finely serrulate, surfaces glabrous.
calyx pale green, sometimes hairy;
corolla usually white tinged with pink, cylindric, 5–9 mm;
filaments ± hairy.
calyx pale green, lobes vestigial, glabrous;
corolla pink, globose to urceolate, 3–4 × 3–4 mm, thin, glaucous;
filaments glabrous.
black, 6–8 mm diam., sometimes puberulent.
red, ± translucent, or bluish purple, 4–6 mm diam.
5–25, ca. 1 mm.
ca. 1 mm.
= 24.
Vaccinium tenellum
Vaccinium scoparium
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.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
PNW Herbaria, Turner Photog. 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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