Taxonomy
Family: Ericaceae
Habitat
Dry upland woods and barren fields. Fire adapted.
Associates
Distribution
ME west to MN, south to GA, AL, AR, and eastern OK.
Morphology
Colonial, deciduous shrub to 80 cm; branchlets glabrous or sparsely pubescent; winter bud scales rounded at the apex; leaves ovate to broad-elliptic, entire, glaucous and also sometimes slightly hairy underneath; corolla cylinderic to urceolate, 4-8 mm, white or pink tinged; fruit blue glaucous or rarely black, 5-8 mm.
Notes
Flowers April to June.
Wetland indicator: UPL
One of several species of "lowbush" blueberries. It differs from others in having glaucous leaves with entire margins, glabrous or at most sparsely pubescent branchlets, and and blunt winter bud scales. The veins of the leaf are also markedly anastomose.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
USDA, NRCS. 2002. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).
National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
Michael Hough © 2018 |