Vaccinium uliginosum
Vaccinium uliginosum 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, at high altitudes south to the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Caucasus in Europe, the mountains of Mongolia, northern China, the Korean Peninsula and central Japan in Asia, the Sierra Nevada in California and the Rocky Mountains in Utah in North America, it grows on wet acidic soils on heathland, tundra, in the understory of coniferous forests, from sea level in the Arctic, up to 3,400 metres altitude in the south of the range. Vaccinium uliginosum is a small deciduous shrub growing to 10–75 cm tall 1 m tall, with brown stems; the leaves are oval, 4–30 mm long and 2–15 mm wide, blue-green with pale net-like veins, with a smooth margin and rounded apex. The flowers are urn-shaped, pale pink, 4 -- 6 mm long, produced in mid spring; the fruit is a dark blue-black berry 5–8 mm diameter, with a white flesh and sweet when ripe in late summer.
Some authors separate them. The subspecies are: Vaccinium uliginosum subsp. Microphyllum Lange – Arctic plants Vaccinium uliginosum subsp. Occidentale Hultén – North American plants Vaccinium uliginosum subsp. Uliginosum In Korea, bog bilberry is used in infused liquor. Blamey, M.. Flora of Britain and Northern Europe. Hodder & Stoughton. Den virtuelle floran – Distribution of Vaccinium uliginosum Calflora Jepson Manual treatment of Vaccinium uliginosum – flora of California. Flora Europaea: Vaccinium uliginosum Plants of British Columbia: Vaccinium uliginosum Vaccinium uliginosum in the CalPhotos Photo Database, University of California, Berkeley Media related to Vaccinium uliginosum at Wikimedia Commons
Blueberry
Blueberries are perennial flowering plants with blue– or purple–colored berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Vaccinium includes cranberries and huckleberries. Commercial "blueberries" – including both wild and cultivated blueberries – are all native to North America; the highbush blueberry varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s. Blueberries are prostrate shrubs that can vary in size from 10 centimeters to 4 meters in height. In commercial production of blueberries, the species with small, pea–size berries growing on low–level bushes are known as "lowbush blueberries", while the species with larger berries growing on taller cultivated bushes are known as "highbush blueberries"; the leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, 1–8 cm long and 0.5–3.5 cm broad. The flowers are bell-shaped, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish; the fruit is a berry 5–16 millimeters in diameter with a flared crown at the end. They are covered in a protective coating of powdery epicuticular wax, colloquially known as the "bloom".
They have a sweet taste, with variable acidity. Blueberry bushes bear fruit in the middle of the growing season: fruiting times are affected by local conditions such as altitude and latitude, so the peak of the crop, in the northern hemisphere, can vary from May to August; the genus Vaccinium has a circumpolar distribution, with species being present in North America and Asia. Many commercially sold species with English common names including "blueberry" are from North America. Many North American native species of blueberries are grown commercially in the Southern Hemisphere in Australia, New Zealand and South American nations. Several other wild shrubs of the genus Vaccinium produce eaten blue berries, such as the predominantly European Vaccinium myrtillus and other bilberries, which in many languages have a name that translates to "blueberry" in English. See the Identification section for more information. Note: habitat and range summaries are from the Flora of New Brunswick, published in 1986 by Harold R. Hinds, Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast, published in 1994 by Pojar and MacKinnon.
Some other blue-fruited species of Vaccinium: Vaccinium koreanum Vaccinium myrtillus Vaccinium uliginosum Commercially offered blueberries are from species that occur only in eastern and north-central North America. Other sections in the genus, native to other parts of the world, including the Pacific Northwest and southern United States, South America and Asia, include other wild shrubs producing similar-looking edible berries, such as huckleberries and whortleberries and bilberries; these species are sometimes sold as blueberry jam or other products. The names of blueberries in languages other than English translate as "blueberry", e.g. Scots blaeberry and Norwegian blåbær. Blaeberry, blåbær and French myrtilles refer to the European native bilberry, while bleuets refers to the North American blueberry. Russian голубика does not refer to blueberries, which are non-native and nearly unknown in Russia, but rather to their close relatives, bog bilberries. Cyanococcus blueberries can be distinguished from the nearly identical-looking bilberries by their flesh color when cut in half.
Ripe blueberries have light green flesh, while bilberries and huckleberries are red or purple throughout. Blueberries are sold fresh or are processed as individually quick frozen fruit, purée, juice, or dried or infused berries; these may be used in a variety of consumer goods, such as jellies, blueberry pies, snack foods, or as an additive to breakfast cereals. Blueberry jam is made from blueberries, sugar and fruit pectin. Blueberry sauce is a sweet sauce prepared using blueberries as a primary ingredient. Blueberry wine is made from the flesh and skin of the berry, fermented and matured. Blueberries consist of 84 % water, they contain only negligible amounts of micronutrients, with moderate levels of the essential dietary mineral manganese, vitamin C, vitamin K and dietary fiber. Nutrient contents of blueberries are a low percentage of the DV. One serving provides a low caloric value of 57 kcal per 100 g serving and glycemic load score of 6 out of 100 per day. Blueberries contain anthocyanins, other polyphenols and various phytochemicals under preliminary research for their potential role in the human body.
Most polyphenol studies have been conducted using the highbush cultivar of blueberries, while content of polyphenols and anthocyanins in lowbush blueberries exceeds values found in highbush cultivars. Blueberries may be cultivated. In North America, the most common cultivated species is V. corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry. Hybrids of this with other Vaccinium species adapted to southern U. S. climates are known collectively as southern highbush blueberries. So-called "wild" blueberries, smaller than cultivated highbush ones, have intense color; the lowbush blueberry, V. angustifolium, is found from the Atlantic provinces westward to Quebec and southward to Michigan and West Virginia. In some areas, it produces natural
Shrub
A shrub or bush is a small- to medium-sized woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody, they are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height, are under 6 m tall. Plants of many species may grow either depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs less than 2 m tall, such as lavender and most small garden varieties of rose, are termed "subshrubs". An area of cultivated shrubs in a park or a garden is known as a shrubbery; when clipped as topiary, suitable species or varieties of shrubs develop dense foliage and many small leafy branches growing close together. Many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a "stool" results in long new stems known as "canes". Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their character. Shrubs in common garden practice are considered broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as mountain pine and common juniper are shrubby in structure. Species that grow into a shrubby habit may be either evergreen.
In botany and ecology, a shrub is more used to describe the particular physical structural or plant life-form of woody plants which are less than 8 metres high and have many stems arising at or near the base. For example, a descriptive system adopted in Australia is based on structural characteristics based on life-form, plus the height and amount of foliage cover of the tallest layer or dominant species. For shrubs 2–8 metres high the following structural forms are categorized: dense foliage cover — closed-shrub mid-dense foliage cover — open-shrub sparse foliage cover — tall shrubland sparse foliage cover — tall open shrublandFor shrubs less than 2 metres high the following structural forms are categorized: dense foliage cover — closed-heath or closed low shrubland— mid-dense foliage cover — open-heath or mid-dense low shrubland— sparse foliage cover — low shrubland sparse foliage cover — low open shrubland Those marked with * can develop into tree form
Vaccinium corymbosum
Vaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry, is a North American species of blueberry which has become a food crop of significant economic importance. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern and southern United States, from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south as far as Florida and eastern Texas, it is naturalized in other places: Europe, New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest of North America, etc. Other common names include blue huckleberry, tall huckleberry, swamp huckleberry, high blueberry, swamp blueberry. Vaccinium corymbosum is a deciduous shrub growing to 6 -- 12 feet wide, it is found in dense thickets. The dark glossy green leaves are up to 2 inches long. In autumn, the leaves turn to a brilliant red, yellow, and/or purple; the flowers are long bell- or urn-shaped white to light pink, 1⁄3 of an inch long. The fruit is a 1⁄4-to-1⁄2-inch diameter blue-black berry; this plant is found in open areas with moist acidic soils. The species does not self-pollinate. Most cultivars have a chilling requirement greater than 800 hours.
Many wild species of Vaccinium are thought to have been cultivated by Native Americans for thousands of years, with intentional crop burnings in northeastern areas being apparent from archeological evidence. V. corymbosum, being one of the species used by these peoples, was studied and domesticated in 1908 by Frederick Vernon Coville. In natural habitats it is a food source for native and migrating birds and small mammals; the berries were collected and used in Native American cuisine in areas where Vaccinium corymbosum grew as a native plant. Vaccinium corymbosum is the most common commercially grown blueberry in present-day North America, it is cultivated as an ornamental plant for home and wildlife gardens and natural landscaping projects. The pH must be acidic; some common cultivar varieties are listed here, grouped by approximate start of the harvest season: The cultivars Duke and Spartan have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Some named Southern highbush blueberry are hybridized forms derived from crosses between V. corymbosum and Vaccinium darrowii, a native of the Southeastern U.
S. These hybrids and other cultivars of V. darrowii have been developed for cultivation in warm southern and western regions of North America. Vaccinium Huckleberry United States Department of Agriculture Plants Profile for Vaccinium corymbosum Species account and photographs from Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Information Network
Vaccinium padifolium
Vaccinium padifolium is common at elevations between 800 and 1,700 metres. It grows in crevices and exposed slopes and mountain plains. Fruits are used in preserves, it is endemic to Porto Santo, Portugal. It is a semi-evergreen scrub to small tree 1.5–6 m tall. New branches are reddish and pubescent. Leaves are flushed dark red in autumn 2.5–7 × 1–2 cm, oblong to elliptic, acute to acuminate, petiole short, pubescent. Calyx 3–4 mm, with five short, broad lobes up to 1.5 mm. Flowers on curved pedicels in erect, bracteate racemes. Corolla, 7–10 mm, globose to campanulate, the lobes short. There are five broad rose stripes on the white corolla. Berries up to 12 × 10 mm, ripening blue-black; the blue color of the berries is due to anthocyanins. Flora Endémica da Madeira, Roberto Jardim, David Francisco, Múchia, Publicações, 1ªed, 2000, Portugal, ISBN 972-8622-00-7 J. R. Press and M. J. Short, Flora of Madeira, ISBN 9781 898 29880 9, 2001, Natural History Museum, UK
Vaccinium caesariense
Vaccinium caesariense is native to the Eastern United States. It is a species in the genus Vaccinium, which includes blueberries, cranberries and bilberries. Vaccinium caesariense is a native perennial plant in the Eastern United States, is prominent in the New Jersey area, hence its common name New Jersey Blueberry, it is most found in the following states: Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Vaccinium caesariense has simple, oval green leaves during the summer and loses its leaves in the winter; this dicot exhibits a shurb growth habit, meaning this perennial, multi-stemmed woody plant is not to grow larger than 5 meters in height due to its numerous steming arrangements. In commercial cultivation of Vaccinium caesariense, they are planted at the beginning of Fall or the end of Winter, with organic fertilizers such as manure compost and vermicompost; as the plants develop woody stems irrigation is only needed during dry periods.
The cultivated plants are grown in soil, accommodating to acidophilic plants. The blueberry is one of the few fruits eaten in North America, native to the continent. Native Americans harvested the wild blueberries, their special use in the plant is its function as coloring items. It is known as a medication for ailing stomach issues. Early Euro-American immigrant settlers began incorporating the fruit as an ingredient in foods and as a medicine. New Jersey has developed environmental and agricultural programs to protect and develop the New Jersey Blueberry, such as the Blueberry Plant Certification Program and the Phillip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry & Cranberry Research & Extension; the New Jersey legislature issued a Proclamation for its native plant: "Whereas, The highbush blueberry is indigenous to New Jersey, where it was first cultivated for commercial production, due to pioneering work by New Jerseyan Elizabeth White and Dr. Frederick Coville, who in the early 1900s dedicated themselves to the study and breeding of blueberries at Whitesbog, in Browns Mills, New Jersey.
Although the species is still found growing in natural habitats, most of New Jersey's cultivated blueberries are a hybrid Highbush type. It was first developed by Elizabeth Coleman White, the daughter of a cranberry farmer, introduced in Whitesbog, Burlington County, New Jersey. During harvest season, New Jersey farmers set up road-side farm stands and sell the fresh blueberries; the hybrid fruit, when frozen, maintains quality and taste upon thawing
Flowering plant
The flowering plants known as angiosperms, Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 64 orders, 416 families 13,164 known genera and c. 369,000 known species. Like gymnosperms, angiosperms are seed-producing plants. However, they are distinguished from gymnosperms by characteristics including flowers, endosperm within the seeds, the production of fruits that contain the seeds. Etymologically, angiosperm means a plant; the term comes from the Greek words sperma. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, 245 to 202 million years ago, the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya, they diversified extensively during the Early Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, replaced conifers as the dominant trees from 100 to 60 mya. Angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table below; these distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants and the most commercially important group to humans.
Angiosperm stems are made up of seven layers. The amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms; the vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the phloem form concentric rings. In the dicotyledons, the bundles in the young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium. By the formation of a layer of cambium between the bundles, a complete ring is formed, a regular periodical increase in thickness results from the development of xylem on the inside and phloem on the outside; the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Owing to differences in the character of the elements produced at the beginning and end of the season, the wood is marked out in transverse section into concentric rings, one for each season of growth, called annual rings.
Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the young stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases; the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species; the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally from the axil of a leaf; as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. More the flower-bearing portion of the plant is distinguished from the foliage-bearing or vegetative portion, forms a more or less elaborate branch-system called an inflorescence. There are two kinds of reproductive cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which will divide to become pollen grains, are the "male" cells and are borne in the stamens.
The "female" cells called megaspores, which will divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule and enclosed in the carpel. The flower may consist only of these parts, as in willow, where each flower comprises only a few stamens or two carpels. Other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls and to form an envelope attractive to pollinators; the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as petals. The outer series is green and leaf-like, functions to protect the rest of the flower the bud; the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract bird pollinators. Attraction is effected by color and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower; the characteristics that attract pollinators account for the popularity of flowers and flowering plants among humans. While the majority of flowers are perfect or hermaphrodite, flowering plants have developed numerous morphological and physiological mechanisms to reduce or prevent self-fertilization.
Heteromorphic flowers have short carpels and long stamens, or vice versa, so animal pollinators cannot transfer pollen to the pistil. Homomorphic flowers may employ a biochemical mechanism called self-incompatibility to discriminate between self and non-self pollen grains. In other species, the male and female parts are morphologically separated, developing on different flowers; the botanical term "Angiosperm", from the Ancient Greek αγγείον, angeíon and σπέρμα, was coined in the form Angiospermae by Paul Hermann in 1690, as the name of one of his primary divisions of the plant kingdom. This included flowering plants possessing seeds enclosed in capsules, distinguished from his Gymnospermae, or flowering plants with achenial or schizo-carpic fruits, the whole fruit or each of its pieces being here regarded as a seed and naked; the term and its antonym were maintained by Carl Linnaeus with the same sense, but with restricted application, in the names of the orders of his class Didynamia. Its use with any
