Northern highbush blueberry | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Ericales |
Family: | Ericaceae |
Genus: | Vaccinium |
Species: | V. corymbosum |
Binomial name | |
Vaccinium corymbosum L. 1753 | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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Vaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry, is a North American species of blueberry which has become a food crop of significant economic importance. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern and southern United States, from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south as far as Florida and eastern Texas. It is also naturalized in other places: Europe, Japan, New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest of North America, etc. [2] [3] [4] [5] Other common names include blue huckleberry, tall huckleberry, swamp huckleberry, high blueberry, and swamp blueberry. [6]
Vaccinium corymbosum is a deciduous shrub growing to 6–12 feet (1.8–3.7 m) tall and wide. It is often found in dense thickets. The dark glossy green leaves are elliptical and up to 2 inches (5 cm) long. In autumn, the leaves turn to a brilliant red, orange, yellow, and/or purple. [4] [7]
The flowers are long bell- or urn-shaped white to very light pink, 1⁄3 of an inch (8.5 mm) long. [4] [7]
The fruit is a 1⁄4-to-1⁄2-inch (6.4 to 12.7 mm) diameter blue-black berry. [4] This plant is found in wooded or open areas with moist acidic soils. [7] [8]
The species is tetraploid and does not self-pollinate. [9] Most cultivars have a chilling requirement greater than 800 hours.
Many wild species of Vaccinium are thought to have been cultivated by Native Americans for thousands of years, with intentional crop burnings in northeastern areas being apparent from archeological evidence. [9] V. corymbosum, being one of the species likely used by these peoples, was later studied and domesticated in 1908 by Elizabeth Coleman White and Frederick Vernon Coville.
In natural habitats, the berries are a food source for native and migrating birds, bears, and small mammals. The foliage is browsed by deer and rabbits. [10]
The berries were collected and used in Native American cuisine in areas where Vaccinium corymbosum grew as a native plant. [11]
Vaccinium corymbosum is the most common commercially grown blueberry in present-day North America.
It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant for home and wildlife gardens and natural landscaping projects. [8] [12] The pH must be very acidic (4.5 to 5.5). [4]
Some common cultivar varieties are listed here, grouped by approximate start of the harvest season: [13]
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The cultivars Duke [14] and Spartan [15] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Some named Southern highbush blueberry are hybridized forms derived from crosses between V. corymbosum and Vaccinium darrowii , a native of the Southeastern U.S. These hybrids and other cultivars of V. darrowii (Southern highbush blueberry) have been developed for cultivation in warm southern and western regions of North America. [16] [17]
Vaccinium is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whortleberry), lingonberry (cowberry), and huckleberry. Like many other ericaceous plants, they are generally restricted to acidic soils.
Bilberries, or in Europe blueberries, are a primarily Eurasian species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, bearing edible, dark blue berries. The species most often referred to is Vaccinium myrtillus L., but there are several other closely related species.
Xerophyllum asphodeloides is a North American species of flowering plants in the Melanthiaceae known by the common names turkey beard, eastern turkeybeard, beartongue, grass-leaved helonias, and mountain asphodel. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs in the southern Appalachian Mountains from Virginia to Alabama, and also in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.
Vaccinium angustifolium, commonly known as the wild lowbush blueberry, is a species of blueberry native to eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States, growing as far south as the Great Smoky Mountains and west to the Great Lakes region. Vaccinium angustifolium is the most common species of the commercially used wild blueberries and is considered the "low sweet" berry.
Vaccinium darrowii, with the common names Darrow's blueberry, evergreen blueberry, scrub blueberry, is a species of Vaccinium in the blueberry group.
Vaccinium parvifolium, the red huckleberry, is a species of Vaccinium native to western North America.
Vaccinium arboreum is a species of Vaccinium native to the southeastern and south-central United States, from southern Virginia west to southeastern Nebraska, south to Florida and eastern Texas, and north to Illinois.
Vaccinium ovatum is a North American species of flowering shrub known by the common names evergreen huckleberry,winter huckleberry,cynamoka berry and California huckleberry.
Vaccinium cespitosum, known as the dwarf bilberry, dwarf blueberry, or dwarf huckleberry, is a species of flowering shrub in the genus Vaccinium, which includes blueberries, huckleberries, and cranberries.
Vaccinium stamineum, commonly known as deerberry, tall deerberry, squaw huckleberry, highbush huckleberry, buckberry, and southern gooseberry, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is native to North America, including Ontario, the eastern and central United States, and parts of Mexico. It is most common in the southeastern United States.
Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Vaccinium also includes cranberries, bilberries, huckleberries and Madeira blueberries. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) and cultivated (highbush)—are all native to North America. The highbush varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s.
Gaylussacia brachycera, commonly known as box huckleberry or box-leaved whortleberry, is a low North American shrub related to the blueberry and the other huckleberries. It is native to the east-central United States.
Vaccinium caesariense is native to the Eastern United States. It is a species in the genus Vaccinium, which includes blueberries, cranberries, huckleberry, and bilberries.
Vaccinium deliciosum is a species of bilberry known by the common names Cascade bilberry, Cascade blueberry, and blueleaf huckleberry.
Vaccinium membranaceum is a species within the group of Vaccinium commonly referred to as huckleberry. This particular species is known by the common names thinleaf huckleberry, tall huckleberry, big huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, and (ambiguously) as "black huckleberry".
Gaylussacia frondosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names dangleberry and blue huckleberry. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs from New Hampshire to South Carolina.
Blueberry shoestring virus (BBSSV) is a disease-causing virus that is commonly transmitted by the aphid vector, Illinoia pepperi. The blueberry shoestring virus disease is very prominent in highbush and lowbush blueberry plants in the northeastern and upper Midwest of the United States. Symptoms can vary significantly depending on the environment, but the most common disease symptoms are reddish streaking on young stems, reduced vigor and strap-shaped leaves. The blueberry shoestring virus disease can be managed by eliminating the aphid vector through the use of biological, chemical or cultural controls. In severe cases, the disease leads to an extensive loss of yield and marketable fruit.
Vaccinium fuscatum, the black highbush blueberry, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family (Ericaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in Ontario, Canada and the eastern United States. Its typical natural habitat is wet areas such as bogs, pocosins, and swamps.
Vaccinium formosum, with common names highbush blueberry, southern blueberry, southern highbush blueberry, and swamp highbush blueberry, is a species of blueberry that is native to the Southeastern United States.
The Duke blueberry, also known as Vaccinium 'Duke', is a cultivar of northern highbush blueberry released in 1987. It is a tetraploid cultivar, derived mostly from Vaccinium corymbosum with a 4 percent contribution of Vaccinium angustifolium. Its parentage includes the cultivars 'Ivanhoe' and 'Earliblue'