Vaccinium myrsinites

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Vaccinium myrsinites
Shiny blueberry (Vaccinium myrsinites) (7154743184).jpg
Vacciniummyrsinites.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Vaccinium
Species:
V. myrsinites
Binomial name
Vaccinium myrsinites
Synonyms [1]
  • Cyanococcus myrsinites(Lamarck) Small
  • Vaccinium nitidumAndrews

Vaccinium myrsinites is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common name shiny blueberry. It is native to the southeastern United States from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. [2] It may occur as far west as Louisiana. [3]

Vaccinium myrsinites is an erect, branching shrub that reaches one meter (40 inches) in maximum height. It is rhizomatous and can form very large colonies. Colonies measuring one kilometer (0.63 miles ) across and over 1,000 years old have been observed. [3] It is generally evergreen, but some forms are deciduous. The stems have angular green twigs. The leathery, green or grayish green, oval leaves are up to roughly one centimeter (0.4 inches) long and have smooth or vaguely toothed edges. The undersides are glandular. The flowers are urn-shaped or cylindrical, white to pink or red-tinged, and borne in clusters of up to 8. They may be nearly one centimeter long. The fruit is a black or waxy blue berry up to 8 or 9 millimeters in length containing several seeds. [1] [3]

Vaccinium myrsinites grows in several habitat types in the southeastern U.S., including prairies, pine barrens, bog margins, flatwoods, Florida scrub, palmetto communities, and rosemary balds. It also grows in disturbed, clearcut, and fallow cultivated areas. Associated plants include scrub palmetto, netted pawpaw, scrubclover, dodder, Florida blazingstar, scrub mint, tree sparkleberry, saw palmetto, Lyonia, dwarf huckleberry, inkberry, bracken fern, several oaks, many species of pine. The best sites are dry, sandy stretches of acidic soils in full sunlight. [3]

In common with many southeastern scrub species, this plant is fire-adapted. It can recover from a fire by sprouting from its rhizome. This is also the way it forms vast colonies of cloned individuals. The plant also reproduces sexually by seed. The seeds are dispersed by animals, which relish the fruits. [3]

Vaccinium myrsinites is likely a hybrid of two other blueberry species, small cluster blueberry and Darrow's evergreen blueberry. Individuals may resemble one or the other parent species; the "darrowoid" phase is more common in coastal Florida, while the "tenneloid" phase can be found in southern Georgia and northern Florida. This species also hybridizes with many other blueberries. [3]

The Seminole used V. myrsinites for food and for a variety of ceremonial and medicinal purposes, including the treatment of "hog sickness", or unconsciousness. [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Vaccinium</i> Genus of berry-producing shrubs in the heath family

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.

<i>Vaccinium corymbosum</i> Species of plant

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. Other common names include blue huckleberry, tall huckleberry, swamp huckleberry, high blueberry, and swamp blueberry.

<i>Vaccinium darrowii</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium darrowii, with the common names Darrow's blueberry, evergreen blueberry, scrub blueberry, or southern highbush blueberry, is a species of Vaccinium in the blueberry group.

<i>Vaccinium crassifolium</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium crassifolium, the creeping blueberry, is a species of Vaccinium in the heath family. It is native to the four southeastern U.S. states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. It is an evergreen shrub with shiny dark green to bronze leaves.

<i>Vaccinium ovatum</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium ovatum is a North American species of flowering shrub known by the common names evergreen huckleberry,winter huckleberry and California huckleberry.

<i>Vaccinium stamineum</i>

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.

A number of plants in the genus Vaccinium share the common name Evergreen blueberry:

Blueberry Section of plants

Blueberries are 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.

<i>Illicium parviflorum</i>

Illicium parviflorum, known locally as swamp star anise, is a species of flowering plant in the family Schisandraceae, or alternately, the Illiciaceae. It is native to Florida in the United States. It historically occurred in Georgia, as well, but it has been extirpated from the state. Its common names include yellow anisetree, yellow-anise, swamp star-anise, and small anise tree.

<i>Vaccinium membranaceum</i> Species of plant

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".

<i>Conradina etonia</i>

Conradina etonia is a rare species of shrub in the mint family known by the common name Etonia rosemary. It is endemic to Putnam County, Florida, where it is known from about 8 populations on Etoniah Creek State Forest containing fewer than 1000 total individuals. It has a specific habitat requirement and the main threat it faces is destruction and degradation of its habitat. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.

<i>Asimina pulchella</i>

Asimina pulchella is a rare species of flowering plant in the custard apple family known by the common names beautiful pawpaw, royal false pawpaw, and white squirrel banana. It is a federal listed endangered species.

<i>Deeringothamnus rugelii</i> Species of plant

Deeringothamnus rugelii is a rare species of flowering plant in the custard apple family known by the common names Rugel's pawpaw, Rugel's false pawpaw, and yellow squirrel banana. It is endemic to Volusia County, Florida, in the United States, where there are fewer than 5000 plants remaining in severely fragmented habitat. The main threat to this species is habitat destruction and degradation. It was federally listed as an endangered species in 1986.

<i>Eryngium cuneifolium</i> Species of flowering plant in the celery family Apiaceae

Eryngium cuneifolium is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names wedgeleaf eryngo, wedge-leaved button-snakeroot, and simply snakeroot. It is endemic to the state of Florida in the United States where it is known only from Highlands County. It is one of many rare species that can be found only on the Lake Wales Ridge, an area of high endemism. It was federally listed as an endangered species of the United States in 1987.

<i>Gaylussacia dumosa</i> Berry and plant

Gaylussacia dumosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names dwarf huckleberry, bush huckleberry, and gopherberry. It is native to eastern North America from Newfoundland to Louisiana and Florida. It occurs along the coastal plain and in the mountains.

<i>Gaylussacia frondosa</i> Berry and plant

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.

<i>Lyonia lucida</i>

Lyonia lucida is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae known by the common names fetterbush lyonia, hurrahbush, and staggerbush. Other plants may also be called fetterbush. This broadleaved evergreen plant grows on the coastal plain of the southeastern United States from Virginia to Florida to Louisiana. It also occurs in Cuba.

<i>Vaccinium pallidum</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium pallidum is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names hillside blueberry, Blue Ridge blueberry, late lowbush blueberry, and early lowbush blueberry. It is native to central Canada (Ontario) and the central and eastern United States plus the Ozarks of Missouri, Arkansas, southeastern Kansas and eastern Oklahoma.

The south Florida pine flatwoods are a flatwoods forest community found in central and southern Florida.

<i>Vaccinium hirsutum</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium hirsutum is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common name hairy blueberry. This species is endemic to a small area in the southern Appalachian mountains, where it is only known from a few counties in eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, and the Carolinas.

References

  1. 1 2 Flora of North America, Vaccinium myrsinites Lamarck 1783. Shiny blueberry .
  2. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tirmenstein, D. 1990. Vaccinium myrsinites. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  4. Vaccinium myrsinites. University of Michigan Ethnobotany.