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 heath plants, they are restricted to acidic soils.
Empetrum nigrum, crowberry, black crowberry, mossberry, or, in western Alaska, Labrador, etc., blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually dioecious, but there is a bisexual tetraploid subspecies, Empetrum nigrum subsp. hermaphroditum, which occurs in more northerly locations and at higher altitude.
Bilberries are Eurasian low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium in the flowering plant family Ericaceae that bear edible, dark blue berries. They resemble but are distinct from North American blueberries.
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.
Betula glandulosa, the American dwarf birch, also known as resin birch or shrub birch, is a species of birch native to North America.
Vaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry, is a North American species of blueberry. Other common names include blue huckleberry, tall huckleberry, swamp huckleberry, high blueberry, and swamp blueberry.
Vaccinium myrtilloides is a North American shrub with common names including common blueberry, velvetleaf huckleberry, velvetleaf blueberry, Canadian blueberry, and sourtop blueberry.
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.
Ostrya virginiana, the American hophornbeam, is a species of Ostrya native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Manitoba and eastern Wyoming, southeast to northern Florida and southwest to eastern Texas. Populations from Mexico and Central America are also regarded as the same species, although some authors prefer to separate them as a distinct species, Ostrya guatemalensis. Other names include eastern hophornbeam, hardhack, ironwood, and leverwood.
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. Cytology is 2n = 24.
Empetrum nigrum, crowberry, black crowberry, mossberry, or, in western Alaska, Labrador, etc., blackberry, is a flowering plant species in the heather family Ericaceae with a near circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It is usually dioecious, but there is a bisexual tetraploid subspecies, Empetrum nigrum subsp. hermaphroditum, which occurs in more northerly locations and at higher altitude.
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.
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. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) and cultivated (highbush)—are all native to North America. The highbush varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s.
Vaccinium ovalifolium is a plant in the heath family with three varieties, all of which grow in northerly regions.
Vaccinium membranaceum is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, known by the common names thinleaf huckleberry, tall huckleberry, big huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, and ambiguously as "black huckleberry".
Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate northern hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.
Rhododendron mucronulatum, the Korean rhododendron or Korean rosebay, is a rhododendron species native to Korea, Mongolia, Russia, and parts of northern China. It is a deciduous shrub that grows to 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) in height, with elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate leaves, 3–7 cm long by 1–3.5 cm wide. The reddish-purple flowers appear in late winter or early spring, often on the bare branches before the foliage unfurls. It inhabits forested regions at 1,600–2,300 m (5,200–7,500 ft).
Vaccinium boreale, common name northern blueberry, sweet hurts, or bleuet boréal, is a plant species native to the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. It has been found in Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State. It grows in tundra, rocky uplands, and in open conifer forests at elevations up to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
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.
Bilberries on branches
Close-up of bilberries in Eastern Siberia
Bog bilberry liquor (left) produced in North Korea
