Vaccinium myrtilloides

Plants forming ± open colonies, 1-11.5 dm; twigs greenish brown, terete, pilose or hairy. Leaves deciduous; blade green, elliptic, 23-35 × 8-16 mm, membranous to subcoriaceous, margins entire, surfaces ± densely hairy (sometimes mostly on veins), eglandular, sometimes glabrescent. Flowers: calyx green, glabrous, (eglandular); corolla greenish white to pink, urceolate, 3-5 mm, (eglandular); filaments usually hairy. Berries blue, glaucous, 6-8 mm diam., glabrous. Seeds 10-40, ca. 1 mm. 2n = 24.

Flowering late spring-early summer. Open or disturbed sites in boreal forest, muskegs, bogs, barrens, headlands, outcrops, mountain meadows; 0-1700 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Labr.), N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Conn., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Maine, Mass., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., Vt., W.Va., Wis.

Colonial shrubs 2-5 dm; bud-scales sharply acute; lvs thin and soft, elliptic to lance-elliptic, 1-3(-4) cm, half or a third as wide, entire, softly hairy beneath, not glaucous; cor broadly cylindric, 4-5 mm, white or tinged with pink; fr blue- glaucous, 4-7 mm; 2n=24. Moist or dry soil and bogs; Lab. to B.C., s. to Pa., Ind., ne. Io., and Minn., and in the mts. to Va. and W.Va. May-July. (V. canadense; Cyanococcus c.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

This species is distinguished by its dwarf size, densely pubescent branchlets, and narrow leaves which are entire and densely pubescent beneath. Our only authentic record for Indiana is that of a colony on the north slope of a wooded headland along Bear Creek near Fountain, Fountain County. The area where it is located is used as a summer resort and since the plant is exposed it will doubtless soon disappear. Associated with this species at this place was a form of it about 1 dm taller, with leaves all of a narrow form, and with fruit usually oblong, black, and without a bloom. I find in literature no reference to this form.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 10

Wetland Indicator Status: FACW