Vaccinium vitis-idaea |
Vaccinium ovalifolium |
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airelle vigne-d'ida, cowberry, foxberry, lingonberry, mountain cranberry, northern mountain cranberry, partridgeberry |
airelle à feuilles ovées, Alaska blueberry, early blueberry, oval-leaf blueberry, oval-leaf huckleberry |
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Habit | Plants densely colonial, frequently mat-forming; twigs of previous year green, terete, puberulent, not verrucose. | Plants crown-forming, clumped, suckering when disturbed, rarely forming extensive colonies, 3–40 dm, not rhizomatous; twigs yellow-green or golden brown, glaucous, usually terete, sometimes somewhat angled, glabrous, sometimes hairy in lines. |
Leaf | blades pale and glandular abaxially, bright green adaxially, elliptic to obovate, 5–18 × 3–9 mm, glaucous-coriaceous, margins entire, slightly revolute. |
blades pale green or glaucous abaxially, slightly darker pale green adaxially, ovate to elliptic, rarely obovate, 25–39 × 16–20 mm, margins entire to obscurely serrate, abaxial surface glabrous, eglandular (sometimes hairy or glandular along midvein), adaxial surface usually glabrous (sometimes hairy and/or glandular). |
Pedicels | 4–6 mm. |
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Flowers | corolla pinkish white, 3–5 mm; filaments puberulent. |
calyx pale green or glaucous, lobes vestigial or absent, glabrous; corolla pink, bronze-pink, or greenish white, globose, sometimes urceolate, 5–7 × 4–5 mm, thin, glaucous; filaments glabrous or pilose basally. |
Berries | red, 8–10 mm diam. 2n = 24. |
blue, dull purplish black, or black, sometimes glaucous, 8–10 mm diam. |
Seeds | ca. 1 mm. |
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2n | = 24, 48. |
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Vaccinium vitis-idaea |
Vaccinium ovalifolium |
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Phenology | Flowering late spring–early summer. | Flowering spring-mid summer(-late summer). |
Habitat | Boreal taiga in jack-pine stands, muskegs, raised bogs, dry, rocky barrens, lichen woodlands, exposed habitats, heaths, high moors, headlands, tundras, cliffs, mountain summits | Moist or mesic coniferous woods, transitional habitats adjacent to these coniferous stands, cut-over coniferous woods, verges of road cuts, margins of coniferous woods, peaty slopes |
Elevation | 0-1800 m (0-5900 ft) | 0-2100 m (0-6900 ft) |
Distribution |
AK; CT; MA; ME; MI; MN; NH; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Greenland; n Eurasia; circumboreal
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AK; ID; MI; OR; SD; WA; AB; BC; NF; NS; ON; QC; YT; e Asia (c Japan, Kamchatka)
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Discussion | The distribution of Vaccinium vitis-idaea in North America extends from northwestern Greenland at 77° north latitude, south to Connecticut at 42° north latitude, and from 45° west longitude (southern tip of Greenland) west to 170° west longitude (Aleutian Islands); it is rare in Connecticut (not collected since the late 1800s), Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin. This species has been erroneously reported from New York; it hybridizes with V. myrtillus in northern Europe, producing V. ×intermedium Ruthe. The hybrid might be anticipated in North America, but the two species are not known to occur together anywhere in the flora area. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 8, p. 520. | FNA vol. 8, p. 524. |
Parent taxa | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Vitis-idaea | Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Vaccinium > sect. Myrtillus |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | V. vitis-idaea subsp. minus, V. vitis-idaea var. minus | V. alaskaense |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 351. (1753) | Smith: in A. Rees, Cycl. 36: Vaccinium no. 2. (1817) |
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