Vaccinium oxycoccos

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Vaccinium oxycoccos
VacciniumOxycoccos.jpg
Fruit on a bed of Sphagnum rubellum
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [2]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Vaccinium
Subgenus: Vaccinium subg. Oxycoccus
Species:
V. oxycoccos
Binomial name
Vaccinium oxycoccos
L. 1753
Synonyms [3] [4]
Synonymy
  • Vaccinium oxycoccusLinnaeus
  • Oxycoca vulgarisRaf.
  • Oxycoccus oxycoccos(L.) MacMill.
  • Oxycoccus palustrisPers.
  • Oxycoccus quadripetalusSchinz & Thell.
  • Oxycoccus quadripetalusGilib.
  • Oxycoccus vulgarisHill
  • Schollera europaeaSteud.
  • Schollera oxycoccos(L.) Roth
  • Schollera paludosaBaumg.
  • Schollera palustrisSteud.

Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, [5] or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. [6] It is widespread throughout the cool temperate northern hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America. [5]

Contents

Description

This cranberry is a small, prostrate shrub with vine-like stems that root at the nodes. The leaves are leathery and lance-shaped, up to 1 cm (0.39 in) long. [5] Flowers arise on nodding stalks a few centimeters tall. The corolla is white or pink and flexed backward away from the center of the flower. The fruit is a red berry which has spots when young. It measures up to 1.2 cm (0.47 in) wide. [4] [7] The plant forms associations with mycorrhizae. It mainly reproduces vegetatively. [5]

Distribution and habitat

Vaccinium oxycoccos is a widespread and common species occurring broadly across cooler climates in the temperate northern hemisphere. [5] [2] [8] [9] [10] It is an indicator of moist to wet soils which are low in nitrogen and have a high water table. It is an indicator of coniferous swamps. It grows in bogs and fens in moist forest habitat. It grows on peat which may be saturated most of the time. The soil in bogs is acidic and low in nutrients. The plant's mycorrhizae help it obtain nutrients in this situation. Fens have somewhat less acidic soil, which is also higher in nutrients. The plant can often be found growing on hummocks of Sphagnum mosses.

Ecology

In North America, other species found in this forest understory habitat include leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), bog rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla), bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia), pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum), cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus), rhodora (Rhododendron canadense), glossy buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula), sundew ( Drosera spp.), cottonsedge (Eriophorum virginatum and E. angustifolium), and species of sedge and lichen. The plant easily colonizes bog habitat that has recently burned. It survives fire with its underground rhizomes. [4] [5]

Uses

The berries of Vaccinium oxycoccos are edible [11] and have been used both as a medicine and as a food by various Native American communities. Some Iñupiat cook the cranberry with fish eggs and blubber. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ericaceae</span> Heather family of flowering plants

The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c. 4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers.

<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.

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<i>Cornus canadensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Cornus canadensis is a species of flowering plant in the dogwood family Cornaceae, native to eastern Asia and North America. Common names include Canadian dwarf cornel, Canadian bunchberry, quatre-temps, crackerberry, and creeping dogwood. Unlike its relatives, which are for the most part substantial trees and shrubs, C. canadensis is a creeping, rhizomatous perennial growing to about 20 centimetres tall.

<i>Calla</i> Monotypic genus of flowering plant in the arum family Araceae

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

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<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 uliginosum</i> Berry and plant

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<i>Eurybia radula</i> Species of flowering plant

Eurybia radula, commonly known as the low rough aster or rough wood aster, is an herbaceous perennial in the family Asteraceae. It is native to eastern North America where it is present from Newfoundland and Labrador in the far northeast of Canada, west to Ontario and south to Kentucky and Virginia in the United States. The low rough aster is also present on the French overseas territory of St. Pierre and Miquelon just south of Newfoundland. It typically grows in wet soils in a wide variety of habitats from bogs and fens to creek shores to ditches. Although it is not considered threatened over most of its distribution, it is imperiled or possibly extirpated over much of its range in the United States. Its flower heads emerge in the late summer to early fall and show pale blue-violet rays with yellow centres.

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

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<i>Erigeron strigosus</i> Species of plant

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flora of Ireland</span>

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<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.

<i>Penthorum sedoides</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Crepis nicaeensis</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Solidago uliginosa</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Triantha glutinosa</i> Species of plant

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

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References

  1. Maiz-Tome, L. (2016). "Vaccinium oxycoccos". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T64326221A67731197. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T64326221A67731197.en .
  2. 1 2 "Vaccinium oxycoccos". NatureServe.
  3. "Vaccinium oxycoccos". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
  4. 1 2 3 Fang, Ruizheng; Steven, Peter F. "Vaccinium oxycoccus". Flora of China. Vol. 14 via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Matthews, Robin F. (1992). "Vaccinium oxycoccos". Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  6. Stace, Clive (2010). New Flora of the British Isles (3rd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p.  512. ISBN   978-0-521-70772-5.
  7. Vander Kloet, Sam P. (2009). "Vaccinium oxycoccos". 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.
  8. "Vaccinium oxycoccos". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  9. "Vaccinium oxycoccos L." Tela Botanica (in French). Photos, description, French distribution map.
  10. "Vaccinium oxycoccos L." Schede di botanica (in Italian). Photos and European distribution map.
  11. Benoliel, Doug (2011). Northwest Foraging: The Classic Guide to Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Rev. and updated ed.). Seattle, WA: Skipstone. pp. 47–48. ISBN   978-1-59485-366-1. OCLC   668195076.
  12. Jones, Anore (1983). "Nauriat niginaqtuat (Plants that we eat)". Maniilaq Association Traditional Nutrition Program. Kotzebue, Alaska: 104. According to the brief annotation in Anonymous (2003).
  13. Anonymous (2003). "Vaccinium oxycoccos L." Native American Ethnobotany. Dearborn, MI: University of Michigan-Dearborn. Retrieved 24 May 2023.