Blueberries, or huckleberries, are creeping to erect, deciduous to evergreen shrubs or shrublets with thin to leathery leaves, which are entire to edged with small, sharp teeth. There are 1 to several flowers which are axil-borne to terminal, and arranged single or in clusters. The calyx is obscurely to conspicuously 4- to 6-lobed, persistent or deciduous. The corolla consists of united petals and is spherical or urn-shaped. In some cases the petals are essentially separate and the 4-5 segments bent backward. The filaments are hairless or hairy. The anthers are outwardly awn-tipped or awnless, splitting open by pores at the top of short to prominent tubes. The ovary is situated underneath the corolla. The fruit is a reddish to bluish berry. Most species are good ornamental shrubs as well as sources of edible fruit. The genus consists of perhaps 150 species worldwide, of colder or mountainous areas of all continents except Australia. The name is Latin for blueberry.
Guide to Identify Presented Species of Genus Vaccinium
PLANTS USUALLY UP TO 30 CM TALL
V. scoparium – Grouseberry Small shrub, 10-35 cm tall, with red, tasty berries. Higher elevations.
Flowers pinkish, about 4 mm long, nodding, on stalks 2-2.5 mm long.
Leaves alternate, 8-15 mm long, thin, finely sharp-toothed, light-green, hairless.
