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small black blueberry, southern blueberry

deerberry, southern gooseberry

Habit Plants forming extensive, open colonies, 1–7.5 dm; twigs yellowish green, ± terete, hairy. Plants frequently crown-forming, suckering when disturbed, forming small or extensive colonies; twigs of current season variously colored, most often green or glaucous, glabrous to densely hairy, sometimes pilose or glandular (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 usually pale green or glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, elliptic, 20–80 × 9–32 mm, ± membranous, margins usually entire, inrolled on more-coriaceous blades, surfaces glabrous or densely hairy, rarely glandular.

Inflorescences

2–7-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary.

Pedicels

subtended by leaflike bract (ca. as long as flower).

Flowers

calyx pale green, sometimes hairy;

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

filaments ± hairy.

corolla lobes spreading at anthesis, white to greenish white, sometimes purple veined, 4–8 mm;

filaments glabrous or hairy.

Berries

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

green, yellow-green, yellow, purple, or black, often lightly glaucous, 7–18 mm diam., sometimes hairy and sparsely glandular.

Seeds

5–25, ca. 1 mm.

2n

= 24.

= 24.

Vaccinium tenellum

Vaccinium stamineum

Phenology Flowering winter–spring. Flowering spring(-early summer).
Habitat Dry sand hills, pine barrens, scrubby oak woods, open pine parkland, and flatwoods subject to burning Sandy, well-drained soil, xeric communities such as dry oak woods, pine barrens, savannas, dry pine ridges, sparsely wooded bluffs, sand hills, thickets, clearings (usually on acidic substrates, sometimes on limestone)
Elevation 0-200 m (0-700 ft) 0-1700 m (0-5600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV; ON; Mexico (Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vaccinium stamineum has been subject to an inordinate amount of splitting, especially by E. L. Greene and W. W. Ashe (see S. P. Vander Kloet 1988).

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

Source FNA vol. 8, p. 528. FNA vol. 8, p. 521.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Polycodium
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. ovalifolium, V. ovatum, V. oxycoccos, V. pallidum, V. parvifolium, V. scoparium, V. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms Cyanococcus tenellus Polycodium ashei, Polycodium candicans, Polycodium depressum, Polycodium floridanum, Polycodium leptosepalum, Polycodium macilentum, Polycodium melanocarpum, Polycodium neglectum, Polycodium stamineum, V. caesium, V. melanocarpum, V. neglectum, V. stamineum var. affine, V. stamineum var. austromontanum, V. stamineum var. interius, V. stamineum var. melanocarpum, V. stamineum var. neglectum, V. stamineum var. virginianum
Name authority Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 12. 1789 , Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. 1753 ,
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