Vaccinium uliginosum

Last updated

Vaccinium uliginosum
Vaccinium uliginosum fruit.jpg
Vaccinium ulig.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. uliginosum
Binomial name
Vaccinium uliginosum
L.
Synonyms [2]
  • Myrtillus grandisBubani
  • Myrtillus uliginosus(L.) Drejer
  • Vaccinium gaultherioidesBigelow
  • Vaccinium occidentaleA. Gray
  • Vaccinium pedrisHolub
  • Vaccinium pubescensWormsk. ex Hornem.
  • Vaccinium salicinumCham. & Schltdl.

Vaccinium uliginosum (bog bilberry, bog blueberry, [3] northern bilberry or western blueberry) [4] is a Eurasian and North American flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae.

Contents

Description

Vaccinium uliginosum is a small deciduous shrub growing to 10–75 centimetres (4–29+1⁄2 inches) tall, rarely 1 metre (3+1⁄2 feet) tall, with brown stems (unlike the green stems of the closely related bilberry). The leaves are oval, 4–30 millimetres (1⁄8–1+1⁄8 in) long and 2–15 mm (1⁄16–9⁄16 in) wide, blue-green with pale net-like veins, with a smooth margin and rounded apex. [5]

The flowers are pendulous, urn-shaped, pale pink, 4–6 mm (3⁄16–1⁄4 in) long, produced in mid-spring. The fruit is a dark blue-black berry 5–8 mm (3⁄16–5⁄16 in) in diameter, with a white sweet flesh, ripe in late summer. [5] Cytology is 2n = 24. [6] Its fruit persists for an average of 26.1 days, and bears an average of 24.7 seeds per fruit. Fruits average 86.8% water, and their dry weight includes 38.4% carbohydrates and 3.9% lipids. [7]

Subspecies

Three subspecies have been described, but not all authorities distinguish them: [2] [5]

Distribution and habitat

The plant is native to cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, at low altitudes in the Arctic, Baltics, and at high altitudes south to the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Caucasus in Europe, the mountains of Mongolia, northern China, the Korean Peninsula and central Japan in Asia, and the Sierra Nevada in California and the Rocky Mountains in Utah in North America. [5] [8] [9] [10]

It grows on wet acidic soils on heathland, moorland, tundra, [11] and in the understory of coniferous forests, from sea level in the Arctic, up to 3,400 m (11,200 ft) altitude in the south of the range.

V. uliginosum can survive long, severe climatic oscillations. [12] [13]

Uses

The berries can be eaten raw or cooked, used to make jelly or pies, or dried to make pemmican. [14]

In Korean cuisine, bog bilberry is used to make infused liquor (Deuljjuk-sul ).

References

  1. ↑ NatureServe (6 December 2024). "Vaccinium uliginosum| NatureServe Explorer". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Vaccinium uliginosum". 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
  3. ↑ NRCS. "Vaccinium uliginosum". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Wallace, Gary D. (2017). "Vaccinium uliginosum subsp. occidentale". In Jepson Flora Project (ed.). Jepson eFlora. The Jepson Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley . Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Vander Kloet, Sam P. (2009). "Vaccinium uliginosum". 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.
  6. ↑ Redpath, Lauren E.; Aryal, Rishi; Lynch, Nathan; Spencer, Jessica A.; Hulse-Kemp, Amanda M.; Ballington, James R.; Green, Jaimie; Bassil, Nahla; Hummer, Kim; Ranney, Thomas; Ashrafi, Hamid (2022). "Nuclear DNA contents and ploidy levels of North American Vaccinium species and interspecific hybrids". Scientia Horticulturae. 297 110955. Elsevier BV. doi: 10.1016/j.scienta.2022.110955 . ISSN   0304-4238.
  7. ↑ Ehrlén & Eriksson 1991.
  8. ↑ Fang, Ruizheng; Steven, Peter F. "Vaccinium uliginosum". Flora of China. Vol. 14 – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  9. ↑ Altervista Flora Italiana, Falso mirtillo, Vaccinium uliginosum L.
  10. ↑ Kartesz, John T. (2014). "Vaccinium uliginosum". State-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP).
  11. ↑ Turner, Mark; Kuhlmann, Ellen (2014). Trees & Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest (1st ed.). Portland, OR: Timber Press. p. 183. ISBN   978-1-60469-263-1.
  12. ↑ Alexander, Jake M.; Chalmandrier, Loïc; Lenoir, Jonathan; et al. (2017-11-27). "Lags in the response of mountain plant communities to climate change". Global Change Biology. 24 (2): 563–579. doi:10.1111/gcb.13976. ISSN   1354-1013. PMC   5813787 . PMID   29112781.
  13. ↑ De Witte, LC; Armbruster, GFJ; Gielly, L; Taberlet, P; Stocklin, J (2011-11-10). "AFLP markers reveal high clonal diversity and extreme longevity in four key arctic-alpine species". Molecular Ecology. 21 (5): 1081–1097. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2011.05326.x. ISSN   0962-1083. PMID   22070158.
  14. ↑ Nyerges, Christopher (2017). Foraging Washington: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods. Guilford, CT: Falcon Guides. ISBN   978-1-4930-2534-3. OCLC   965922681.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.