| Vaccinium uliginosum | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Ericales |
| Family: | Ericaceae |
| Genus: | Vaccinium |
| Species: | V. uliginosum |
| Binomial name | |
| Vaccinium uliginosum | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
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Vaccinium uliginosum (bog bilberry, bog blueberry, [2] northern bilberry or western blueberry [3] ) is a Eurasian and North American flowering plant in the genus Vaccinium within the heath family.
Vaccinium uliginosum 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. [4] [5] [6] [7]
It grows on wet acidic soils on heathland, moorland, tundra, and in the understory of coniferous forests, from sea level in the Arctic, up to 3,400 metres (11,200 ft) altitude in the south of the range.
Vaccinium uliginosum is a small deciduous shrub growing to 10–75 cm (4–30 in) tall, rarely 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tall, with brown stems (unlike the green stems of the closely related bilberry). The leaves are oval, 4–30 mm (5⁄32–1+3⁄16 in) long and 2–15 mm (5⁄64–19⁄32 in) wide, blue-green with pale net-like veins, with a smooth margin and rounded apex. [4]
The flowers are pendulous, urn-shaped, pale pink, 4–6 mm (5⁄32–15⁄64 in) long, produced in mid spring. The fruit is a dark blue-black berry 5–8 mm (3⁄16–5⁄16 in) diameter, with a white flesh, edible and sweet when ripe in late summer. [4]
V. uliginosum can survive long, severe climatic oscillations. [8] [9]
Three subspecies have been described, but not all authorities distinguish them: [1] [4]
The berries can be eaten raw or cooked, used to make jelly or pies, or dried to make pemmican. [10] Bog bilberry is used in infused liquor in Korea.
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.
Vaccinium vitis-idaea, the lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry, is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family Ericaceae, that bears edible fruit. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Europe and Asia to North America. Lingonberries are picked in the wild and used to accompany various dishes, primarily in the Nordics. Commercial cultivation is undertaken in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and in the Netherlands.
Bilberries or blueberries are a primarily Eurasian species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, bearing edible, dark blue berries. The species most often referred to is Vaccinium myrtillus L., but there are several other closely related species.
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.
Vaccinium myrtilloides is a shrub with common names including common blueberry, velvetleaf huckleberry, velvetleaf blueberry, Canadian blueberry, and sourtop blueberry. 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.
Vaccinium darrowii, with the common names Darrow's blueberry, evergreen blueberry, scrub blueberry, is a species of Vaccinium in the blueberry group.
Vaccinium parvifolium, the red huckleberry, is a species of Vaccinium native to western North America.
Vaccinium ovatum is a North American species of flowering shrub known by the common names evergreen huckleberry,winter huckleberry,cynamoka berry and California huckleberry.
Empetrum nigrum, crowberry, black crowberry, or, in western Alaska, 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. 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.
Vaccinium ovalifolium is a plant in the heath family with three varieties, all of which grow in northerly regions.
Lycopodiella inundata is a species of club moss known by the common names inundated club moss, marsh clubmoss and northern bog club moss. It has a circumpolar and circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout the northern Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic to montane temperate regions in Eurasia and North America. It grows in wet habitat, such as bogs, ponds, moist spots on the tundra, and long-standing borrow pits.
Vaccinium deliciosum is a species of bilberry known by the common names Cascade bilberry, Cascade blueberry, and blueleaf huckleberry.
Carex bigelowii is a species of sedge known by the common names Bigelow's sedge, Gwanmo sedge, and stiff sedge. It has an Arctic–alpine distribution in Eurasia and North America, and grows up to 50 centimetres (20 in) tall in a variety of habitats.
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).
Canbya candida is a tiny, white flowered annual plant in the genus Canbya of the poppy family. It is found in the western Mojave Desert of Southern California. It grows 1–3 cm tall. Its leaves are 5–9 mm long. The flowers are borne in leaf axils, and have 5–7 white petals that are each 3–4 mm long, and 6-9 stamens.
Vaccinium praestans, the Kamchatka bilberry, is a perennial shrub in the family Ericaceae, which includes species like cranberries, blueberries, and huckleberries. In Russia this plant is known as the Klopovka, or stink-bug berry, due to its distinct, potent scent, resembling that of a secretion produced by bugs of Heteroptera genus. The plant is native to Kamchatka but can be found in North America to Eastern Asia. Mostly growing in the wild, it is also enjoyed as an ornamental plant, most commonly in Japan, where it is used to decorate home gardens. Like many other species in the family Ericaceae, its berries are edible.
Media related to Vaccinium uliginosum at Wikimedia Commons