Vaccinium myrtilloides

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Vaccinium myrtilloides
Vaccinium myrtilloides berries.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Vaccinium
Species:
V. myrtilloides
Binomial name
Vaccinium myrtilloides
Michx. 1803
Synonyms [2]
  • Vaccinium angustifolium var. myrtilloides(Michx.) House

Vaccinium myrtilloides is a shrub with common names including common blueberry, velvetleaf huckleberry, velvetleaf blueberry, Canadian blueberry, and sourtop blueberry. [3] It is common in much of North America, reported from all 10 Canadian provinces plus Nunavut and Northwest Territories, as well as from the northeastern and Great Lakes states in the United States. It is also known to occur in Montana and Washington. [4]

Contents

Description

Vaccinium myrtilloides is a low spreading deciduous shrub growing up to 50 cm (20 inches) tall, often spreading to form small thickets. The leaves are bright green, paler underneath with velvety hairs. The flowers are white, bell-shaped, 5 mm (0.2 inches) long. The fruit is a small sweet bright blue to dark blue berry. Young stems have stiff dense bristly hairs. [4]

Vaccinium myrtilloides grows best in open coniferous woods with dry loose acidic soils; it is also found in forested bogs and rocky areas. It is fire-tolerant and is often abundant following forest fires or clear-cut logging. Vaccinium myrtilloides hybridizes in the wild with Vaccinium angustifolium (lowbush blueberry).

Characteristics

Vaccinium myrtilloides is also cultivated and grown commercially in Canada and Maine, mainly harvested from managed wild patches. Vaccinium myrtilloides is one of the sweetest blueberries known.

It is also an important food source for black bears, deer, small mammals, and birds.

Conservation

This species is listed as endangered in Indiana and Connecticut, [5] as threatened in Iowa and Ohio, and as sensitive in Washington (state). [6]

Native American ethnobotany

As cuisine

The Abenaki consume the fruit as part of their traditional diet. [7] The Nihithawak Cree eat the berries raw, make them into jam and eat it with fish and bannock, and boil or pound the sun-dried berries into pemmican. [8] The Hesquiaht First Nation make pies and preserves from the berries. [9] The Hoh and Quileute consume the fruit raw, stew the berries and make them into a sauce, and can the berries and use them as a winter food. [10] The Ojibwa make use of the berries, gathering and selling them, eating them fresh, sun drying and canning them for future use. [11] The Nlaka'pamux make the berries into pies. [12] The Algonquin people gather the fruit to eat and sell. [13] The berries are part of Potawatomi traditional cuisine, and are eaten fresh, dried, and canned. [14]

As medicine

The Nihithawak Cree use a decoction of leafy stems used to bring menstruation and prevent pregnancy, to make a person sweat, to slow excessive menstrual bleeding, to bring blood after childbirth, and to prevent miscarriage. [8] The Potawatomi also use the root bark of the plant for an unspecified ailment. [15]

Other uses

The Nihithawak Cree use the berries to dye porcupine quills. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<i>Vaccinium vitis-idaea</i> Species of shrub with edible fruit

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quileute</span> Federally-recognized Native American tribe in the northwestern United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoh people</span>

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<i>Abies balsamea</i> Species of conifer tree

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<i>Ribes triste</i> Berry and plant

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

Vaccinium myrtillus or European blueberry is a holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortleberry to distinguish it from other Vaccinium relatives.

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

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.

<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 parvifolium</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium parvifolium, the red huckleberry, is a species of Vaccinium native to western North America.

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

Vaccinium uliginosum is a Eurasian and North American flowering plant in the genus Vaccinium within the heath family.

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

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.

<i>Sambucus racemosa</i> Species of plant

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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.

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

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

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

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. It may occur as far west as Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wild edible and medicinal plants of British Columbia</span>

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References

  1. NatureServe (1 December 2023). "Vaccinium myrtilloides". NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  2. "Vaccinium myrtilloides". Tropicos . Missouri Botanical Garden.
  3. Michaux, Flora Borealis-Americana 1: 234. 1803.
  4. 1 2 Vander Kloet, Sam P. (2009). "Vaccinium myrtilloides". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 8. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  5. "Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Species 2015". State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Bureau of Natural Resources. Retrieved 31 December 2017.(Note: This list is newer than the one used by plants.usda.gov and is more up-to-date.)
  6. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Vaccinium myrtilloides". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  7. Rousseau, Jacques, 1947, Ethnobotanique Abenakise, Archives de Folklore 11:145-182, page 152, 171
  8. 1 2 3 Leighton, Anna L., 1985, Wild Plant Use by the Woods Cree (Nihithawak) of East-Central Saskatchewan, Ottawa. National Museums of Canada. Mercury Series, page 63
  9. Turner, Nancy J. and Barbara S. Efrat, 1982, Ethnobotany of the Hesquiat Indians of Vancouver Island, Victoria. British Columbia Provincial Museum, page 67
  10. Reagan, Albert B., 1936, Plants Used by the Hoh and Quileute Indians, Kansas Academy of Science 37:55-70, page 67
  11. Reagan, Albert B., 1928, Plants Used by the Bois Fort Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians of Minnesota, Wisconsin Archeologist 7(4):230-248, page 238
  12. Turner, Nancy J., Laurence C. Thompson and M. Terry Thompson et al., 1990, Thompson Ethnobotany: Knowledge and Usage of Plants by the Thompson Indians of British Columbia, Victoria. Royal British Columbia Museum, page 218
  13. Black, Meredith Jean, 1980, Algonquin Ethnobotany: An Interpretation of Aboriginal Adaptation in South Western Quebec, Ottawa. National Museums of Canada. Mercury Series Number 65, page 103
  14. Smith, Huron H., 1933, Ethnobotany of the Forest Potawatomi Indians, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 7:1-230, page 99
  15. Smith, Huron H., 1933, Ethnobotany of the Forest Potawatomi Indians, Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 7:1-230, page 57