Canadian blueberry

Canadian Blueberry
Conservation status
Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Ericaceae
Genus:	Vaccinium
Species:	V. myrtilloides
Binomial name
Vaccinium myrtilloides Michx.

Canadian Blueberry, Vaccinium myrtilloides , is also called Common Blueberry, Velvetleaf Huckleberry, Velvetleaf Blueberry, and Sourtop Blueberry. It is a species of blueberry native to Canada and the Northeastern and Northwestern United States, as well as the Great Lakes states.

Description

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

This plant 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 .

Charactersitics

This native plant 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.

See also

• Vaccinium
• Huckleberry

External links

• USDA GRIN profile: Vaccinium myrtilloides
• NRCS: USDA Plants Profile: Vaccinium myrtilloides