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airelle des marécages, alpine blueberry, blueberry, bog bilberry, bog blueberry

bleuet boréal, northern blueberry, sweet hurts

Habit Plants forming dense mats or open, extensive colonies; twigs of current season pale green, terete, glabrous or faintly puberulent, not verrucose. Plants forming small, dense colonies, 0.1–0.9 dm, (superficially rhizomatous); twigs green, (delicate), angled, (intricately branched), hairy in lines.
Leaves

blades usually glaucous abaxially, green to glaucous adaxially, orbiculate, ovate, or obovate to narrowly elliptic, 8–14 × 3–7 mm, membranous, margins entire, surfaces often faintly puberulent, sometimes hairy throughout.

deciduous;

blade bright green, narrowly elliptic, 8–21 × 2–6 mm, membranous, margins sharply, uniformly serrate, surfaces usually glabrous, eglandular abaxially.

Flowers

sepals usually distinct;

corolla white to pink, 3–4(–5) mm, lobes 0.3–0.4 mm;

filaments glabrous.

calyx green, glaucous, glabrous (sometimes ciliate);

corolla white to greenish white, cylindric, 3–4 mm;

filaments ciliate.

Berries

blue, 6–8 mm diam., glaucous.

blue, glaucous, 3–5 mm diam., glabrous.

Seeds

10–30, ca. 1.1 mm.

2n

= 24, 48, 72.

= 24.

Vaccinium uliginosum

Vaccinium boreale

Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul. Flowering late spring–early summer.
Habitat Wet or dry acidic sites in boreal taiga, tundras, and alpine thickets and krummholz Headlands, open, rocky uplands, alpine heaths and meadows, forest-tundra. 0-2000 m
Elevation 0-2200 m (0-7200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; ME; MI; MN; MT; NH; NV; NY; OR; UT; VT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Greenland; n Eurasia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
ME; NH; NY; VT; NB; NL; NS; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vaccinium uliginosum is transcontinental in North America between 60° and 70° north latitude; farther north it is rare, especially in the Queen Elizabeth Islands. To the southwest, it is found as far as northern California and northwestern Utah. The summits of the White Mountains of New Hampshire form its southernmost limit in eastern North America. This wide-ranging plant shows considerable variation, notably in floral morphology. Subspecies have been recognized (cf. S. B. Young 1970); a review of morphological variation by H. J. Warr (1981) did not support the distinctiveness of infraspecific taxa.

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

Source FNA vol. 8, p. 518. FNA vol. 8, p. 528.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Vaccinium Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Cyanococcus
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. tenellum, V. vitis-idaea
V. angustifolium, V. arboreum, 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. tenellum, V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea
Synonyms V. gaultherioides, V. occidentale, V. uliginosum subsp. alpinum, V. uliginosum var. alpinum, V. uliginosum subsp. gaultherioides, V. uliginosum subsp. microphyllum, V. uliginosum subsp. occidentale, V. uliginosum var. occidentale, V. uliginosum subsp. pedris, V. uliginosum subsp. pubescens, V. uliginosum var. salicinum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. 1753 , I. V. Hall & Aalders: Amer. J. Bot. 48: 200. 1961 ,
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