Vaccinium

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Vaccinium is a genus of shrubs in the plant Family Ericaceae including the cranberry, blueberry, lingonberry, bilberry, and huckleberry. The genus contains about 450 species, which are found mostly in the cooler areas of the Northern Hemisphere, although there are tropical species from as widely separated areas as Madagascar and Hawai`i. The plants prefer heath landscapes, as well as open forests.

Related Topics:
Genus - Shrub - Ericaceae - Cranberry - Blueberry - Lingonberry - Bilberry - Huckleberry - Northern Hemisphere - Heath

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The fruit develops from an inferior ovary, and is botanically a false berry.

Related Topics:
Fruit - False berry

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There are two subgenera:

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• Subgenus Oxycoccus: the cranberries, with slender, trailing, wiry non-woody shoots and strongly reflexed flower petals. Some botanists treat Oxycoccus as a distinct genus.
• Vaccinium erythrocarpum (Southern Mountain Cranberry)
• Vaccinium macrocarpon (American Cranberry)
• Vaccinium microcarpum (Small Cranberry)
• Vaccinium oxycoccus (Common Cranberry)
• Subgenus Vaccinium: all the other species, with thicker, upright woody shoots and bell-shaped flowers.
• Vaccinium angustifolium (Lowbush Blueberry)
• Vacciuium arboreum (Sparkleberry)
• Vaccinium ashei (Rabbiteye Blueberry)
• Vacciuium atrococcum (Black Huckleberry)
• Vaccinium caesium (Deerberry)
• Vaccinium corymbosum (Highbush Blueberry)
• Vaccinium deliciosum (Cascade bilberry)
• Vaccinium melanocarpum (Georgia Blueberry)
• Vaccinium myrsinites (Evergreen Blueberry)
• Vaccinium myrtilloides (Canadian Blueberry)
• Vaccinium myrtillus (Bilberry)
• Vaccinium occidentalis (Western Blueberry)
• Vaccinium ovatum (California Huckleberry)
• Vaccinium pallidum (Dryland Blueberry)
• Vaccinium parvifolium (Red Huckleberry)
• Vaccinium uliginosum (Northern Bilberry)
• Vaccinium vitis-idaea (Cowberry)
• Vaccinium vitis-idaea var. minus (Lingonberry)

The name Vaccinium is of obscure derivation, but has nothing to do with cows, despite the similarity in the name to the Latin vacca for a cow.

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