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

dingleberry, southern mountain cranberry

Habit Plants forming dense mats or open, extensive colonies; twigs of current season pale green, terete, glabrous or faintly puberulent, not verrucose.
Leaf

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.

Flowers

sepals usually distinct;

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

filaments glabrous.

Berries

blue, 6–8 mm diam., glaucous.

e

United States

2n

= 24, 48, 72.

Vaccinium uliginosum

Vaccinium erythrocarpum

Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul.
Habitat Wet or dry acidic sites in boreal taiga, tundras, and alpine thickets and krummholz
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
GA; NC; TN; VA; WV; se Asia
[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.)

Subspecies 2 (1 in the flora).

Subspecies japonicum (Miquel) Kloet [V. japonicum Miquel] is disjunct in southeastern Asia (S. P. Vander Kloet and B. A. Bohm 1991).

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

Source FNA vol. 8, p. 518. FNA vol. 8, p. 517.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Vaccinium Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Oxycoccoides
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. boreale, V. cespitosum, V. corymbosum, V. crassifolium, V. darrowii, V. deliciosum, 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
Subordinate taxa
V. erythrocarpum subsp. erythrocarpum
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 Hugeria erythrocarpa, Oxycoccus erectus
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. 1753 , Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 227. (1803)
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