Vaccinium uliginosum |
Vaccinium sect. Vaccinium |
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airelle des marécages, alpine blueberry, blueberry, bog bilberry, bog blueberry |
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Habit | Plants forming dense mats or open, extensive colonies; twigs of current season pale green, terete, glabrous or faintly puberulent, not verrucose. | Shrubs, procumbent to erect, (0.3-)1.2-4(-9) dm, rhizomatous. |
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. |
Inflorescences | axillary, racemes, 2-4-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary, ebracteate, from scaly bud on previous year’s wood. |
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Pedicels | ± articulated with calyx tube. |
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Flowers | sepals usually distinct; corolla white to pink, 3–4(–5) mm, lobes 0.3–0.4 mm; filaments glabrous. |
sepals 4-5; petals 4-5(-6), connate for 3/4 to nearly their entire lengths, corolla urceolate; stamens usually 8, included; anthers with awns, tubules ca. 1 mm. |
Berries | blue, 6–8 mm diam., glaucous. |
4-5-locular. |
Seeds | ca. 8-15. |
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2n | = 24, 48, 72. |
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Vaccinium uliginosum |
Vaccinium sect. Vaccinium |
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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 |
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
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North America; Eurasia; circumboreal |
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.) |
Species 1. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 518. | FNA vol. 8, p. 518. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Vaccinium | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
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 , | unknown |
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