Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Vaccinium uliginosum

Vaccinium myrsinites

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

Florida evergreen blueberry, shiny blueberry
Habit Plants forming dense mats or open, extensive colonies; twigs of current season pale green, terete, glabrous or faintly puberulent, not verrucose. Plants forming extensive open colonies, 1.4–10 dm; twigs bright green, ± angled, 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.

persistent for 1+ years;

blade green, elliptic, 5–9 × 3–5 mm, coriaceous, margins ± serrulate, surfaces glandular abaxially.
Flowers

sepals usually distinct;

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

filaments glabrous.

calyx pinkish white, becoming greenish, glabrous;

corolla white to pink or red, ± urceolate, 4–8 mm;

filaments ciliate along margins.
Berries

blue, 6–8 mm diam., glaucous.

black, 7–9 mm diam., glabrous.
Seeds

4–13, ca. 1 mm.
2n

= 24, 48, 72.

= 24, 48.

Vaccinium uliginosum

Vaccinium myrsinites
Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul. Flowering winter–spring.
Habitat Wet or dry acidic sites in boreal taiga, tundras, and alpine thickets and krummholz Flatwoods, sand-pine scrub, oak-palmetto scrub, scrubby flatwoods, rosemary balds
Elevation 0-2200 m (0-7200 ft) 0-30 m (0-100 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
AL; FL; GA; SC
[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. 527.
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. boreale, V. cespitosum, V. corymbosum, V. crassifolium, V. darrowii, V. deliciosum, V. erythrocarpum, V. hirsutum, V. macrocarpon, V. membranaceum, 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 Cyanococcus myrsinites, V. nitidum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 350. 1753 , Lamarck: in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl. 1: 73. (1783)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers