Changes

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Vaccinium L.'' (PROSEA)}}<big>''[[Vaccinium L.]]'' L.</big>

* ''[[Vaccinium bracteatum]]'' Thunb., Fl. Jap. 156 (1784), synonym:''V. malaccense'' Wight (1847).

''V. malaccense'' Wight (1847). * ''[[Vaccinium myrtoides]]'' (Blume) Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat. 2: 1062 (1859).

*General: *blueberry, whortleberry, bilberry, cranberry, huckleberry (En, Am).

* ''V. bracteatum:'' :*sea bilberry (En)

* ''V. myrtoides:'' :*Philippine blueberry (En)

*Shrubs or small trees, terrestrial or epiphytic. *Leaves evergreen, spirally arranged, usually coriaceous, usually with a distinct basal marginal gland on each side, entire or crenulate, mostly with a petiole. *Inflorescences racemose, axillary, sometimes reduced to solitary flowers; calyx tube cup-shaped, limb 4-5-lobed; corolla tubular, 4-5-lobed; stamens 8, 10, or 12; disk annular; ovary inferior, 4-5- or falsely 8-10-celled, style as long as corolla. *Fruit a berry, juicy and soft to hard and dry, crowned by the disk and the persistent calyx lobes. *Seeds few to numerous, small, ellipsoid, irregularly compressed.

''-V.bracteatum'' : *Shrub or terrestrial tree, up to 6 m tall. *Leaves lax, more or less elliptical, 3-8 cm × 1.5-3.5 cm, crenulate-serrate, petiole 2-4 mm long; young leaves in erect reddish-pink flushes. *Racemes many-flowered; flowers fragrant, all set in a row and facing down; pedicel 1-4 mm; calyx 2-3 mm long, lobes triangular; corolla slightly 5-angular, pink or white, tube 5-7 mm long, lobes recurved, 1 mm, pubescent. *Berry globose, 4 mm in diameter, reddish-blackish, pubescent at top. Flowering and fruiting occurs year-round.

* ''V. myrtoides'' : Shrub or small tree, up to 2 m tall. Leaves ovate to elliptic, 1-2.5 cm × 0.6-1.8 cm, often subimbricately arranged, entire, petiole up to 1.5 mm long. Racemes laxly 4-12-flowered; pedicel up to 1.5 cm long; calyx 2.5 mm long, lobes triangular; corolla tube 2.5 mm, recurved lobes 1 mm long, red, pink to creamy-white, glabrous. Berry globose, 4-5 mm in diameter, blue-black, glabrous. Flowers Flowering and fruits fruiting occurs year-round.

''V. myrtoides'' :*Shrub or small tree, up to 2 m tall.*Leaves ovate to elliptic, 1-2.5 cm × 0.6-1.8 cm, often subimbricately arranged, entire, petiole up to 1.5 mm long.*Racemes laxly 4-12-flowered; pedicel up to 1.5 cm long; calyx 2.5 mm long, lobes triangular; corolla tube 2.5 mm, recurved lobes 1 mm long, red, pink to creamy-white, glabrous.*Berry globose, 4-5 mm in diameter, blue-black, glabrous. Flowers and fruits year-round.  Well-known species in other parts of the world include the bilberry, blueberry or whortleberry ( ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' L.) and the cranberry ( ''Vaccinium oxycoccus'' L.), both species native to many parts of Europe and northern Asia, and the cranberry also to North America. The fruits are popular but expensive since they have to be gathered in the wild; the cranberry is also grown commercially in certain moorland areas. More important commercially are the highbush blueberry ( ''Vaccinium corymbosum'' L.), the lowbush blueberry ( ''Vaccinium angustifolium'' Aiton) and hybrids; they are grown in large fields, sometimes on specialized farms, in North America and Europe. It is possible that the temperate species are derived from tropical species. Little chilling is required to break bud dormancy in the highbush blueberry, and successful breeding of cultivars in Florida with very low chilling requirements has paved the way for trials with this crop in tropical highlands.