Vaccinium

Taxobox
name = "Vaccinium"

---

image_caption = "Vaccinium" berries, from top right:
Cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries, red huckleberries
regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Magnoliopsida
ordo = Ericales
familia = Ericaceae
genus = "Vaccinium"
genus_authority = L.
type_species = V. uliginosum"cite web
url = http://botany.si.edu/ing/INGsearch.cfm?searchword=Vaccinium
title = "Vaccinium" Linnaeus
accessdate = 2008-05-09
date = 2003-02-05
format = HTML
work = Index Nominum Genericorum
publisher = International Association for Plant Taxonomy]

subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = See text

"Vaccinium" is a genus of shrubs in the plant Family Ericaceae including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry or whortleberry, lingonberry or cowberry, 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. The name "Vaccinium" was used for a type of berry (probably the bilberry "V. myrtillus") in classical Latin, but its ultimate derivation is obscure; it has nothing to do with "vaccinum" "of or pertaining to cows", but may be a corruption of Latin "bacca", berry (OED).

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

"Vaccinium" species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species - see list of Lepidoptera that feed on Vaccinium.

The taxonomy is complex, and still under investigation. A number of the Asian species are more closely related to "Agapetes" than to other "Vaccinium" species.cite journal | url = http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/89/2/327 | title = Phylogenetic relationships within the blueberry tribe (Vaccinieae, Ericaceae) based on sequence data from MATK and nuclear ribosomal ITS regions, with comments on the placement of Satyria | author = Kathleen A. Kron, E. Ann Powell and J. L. Luteyn | journal = American Journal of Botany | year = 2002 | volume = 89 | pages = 327–336 | doi = 10.3732/ajb.89.2.327 ] [cite web | url = http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=134285 | work = Flora of China | title = Vaccinium ] A second group includes most of "Orthaea" and "Notopora", at least some of "Gaylussacia" (huckleberry), and a number of species from "Vaccinium", such as "Vaccinium crassifolium". Other parts of "Vaccinium" form other groups, sometimes together with species of other genera.

A classification which predates molecular phylogeny divides "Vaccinium" into subgenera, and several sections:;Subgenus "Oxycoccus": The cranberries, with slender, trailing, wiry non-woody shoots and strongly reflexed flower petals. Some botanists treat "Oxycoccus" as a distinct genus.
*Sect. "Oxycoccus"
**"Vaccinium macrocarpon" (American Cranberry)
**"Vaccinium microcarpum" (Small Cranberry)
**"Vaccinium oxycoccus" (Common Cranberry)
*Sect. "Oxycoccoides"
**"Vaccinium erythrocarpum" (Southern Mountain Cranberry);Subgenus "Vaccinium": All the other species, with thicker, upright woody shoots and bell-shaped flowers.
*Sect. "Batodendron"
**"Vaccinium arboreum" (Sparkleberry) ( [http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/frame/vaar.htm images] )
**"Vaccinium crassifolium" (Creeping blueberry)
*Sect. "Brachyceratium"
**"Vaccinium dependens"
*Sect. "Bracteata"
**"Vaccinium acrobracteatum"
**"Vaccinium barandanum"
**"Vaccinium bracteatum"
**"Vaccinium coriaceum"
**"Vaccinium cornigerum"
**"Vaccinium cruentum"
**"Vaccinium hooglandii"
**"Vaccinium horizontale"
**"Vaccinium laurifolium"
**"Vaccinium lucidum"
**"Vaccinium myrtoides"
**"Vaccinium phillyreoides"
**"Vaccinium reticulatovenosum"
**"Vaccinium sparsum"
**"Vaccinium varingifolium"
*Sect. "Ciliata"
**"Vaccinium ciliatum"
**"Vaccinium oldhamii"
*Sect. "Cinctosandra"
**"Vaccinium exul"
*Sect. "Conchophyllum"
**"Vaccinium corymbodendron"
**"Vaccinium delavayi"
**"Vaccinium emarginatum"
**"Vaccinium griffithianum"
**"Vaccinium meridionale"
**"Vaccinium moupinense" (Himalayan Blueberry)
**"Vaccinium neilgherrense"
**"Vaccinium nummularia"
**"Vaccinium retusum"
*Sect. "Cyanococcus" (blueberries)
**"Vaccinium angustifolium" (Lowbush Blueberry)
**"Vaccinium boreale" (Northern Blueberry)
**"Vaccinium caesariense" (New Jersey Blueberry)
**"Vaccinium corymbosum" (Highbush Blueberry)
**"Vaccinium darrowii"
**"Vaccinium elliottii"
**"Vaccinium formosum"
**"Vaccinium fuscatum" (Black Highbush Blueberry; syn. "V. atrococcum")
**"Vaccinium hirsutum"
**"Vaccinium koreanum"
**"Vaccinium myrsinites" (Evergreen Blueberry)
**"Vaccinium myrtilloides" (Canadian Blueberry)
**"Vaccinium pallidum" (Dryland Blueberry) ( [http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/frame/vapa4.htm images] )
**"Vaccinium simulatum"
**"Vaccinium tenellum"
**"Vaccinium virgatum" (Rabbiteye Blueberry; syn. "V. ashei")
*Sect. "Eococcus"
**"Vaccinium fragile"
*Sect. "Epigynium"
**"Vaccinium vacciniaceum"
*Sect. "Galeopetalum"
**"Vaccinium chunii"
**"Vaccinium dunalianum"
**"Vaccinium glaucoalbum"
**"Vaccinium urceolatum"
*Sect. "Hemimyrtillus"
**"Vaccinium arctostaphylos"
**"Vaccinium cylindraceum"
**"Vaccinium hirtum"
**"Vaccinium padifolium"
**"Vaccinium smallii"
*Sect. "Myrtillus"
**"Vaccinium calycinum"
**"Vaccinium cespitosum"
**"Vaccinium deliciosum" (Cascade Bilberry)
**"Vaccinium dentatum"
**"Vaccinium membranaceum"
**"Vaccinium myrtillus" (Bilberry)
**"Vaccinium ovalifolium" (Alaska Blueberry; syn. "V. alaskaense")
**"Vaccinium parvifolium" (Red Huckleberry)
**"Vaccinium praestans"
**"Vaccinium reticulatum" (ohelo 'ai)
**"Vaccinium scoparium" (Grouse Whortleberry)
*Sect. "Neurodesia"
**"Vaccinium crenatum"
*Sect. "Oarianthe"
**"Vaccinium ambyandrum"
**"Vaccinium cyclopense"
*Sect. "Oreades"
**"Vaccinium poasanum"
*Sect. "Pachyanthum"
**"Vaccinium fissiflorum"
*Sect. "Polycodium"
**"Vaccinium stamineum" (Deerberry; syn. "V. caesium") ( [http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/frame/vast.htm images] )
*Sect. "Pyxothamnus"
**"Vaccinium consanguineum"
**"Vaccinium floribundum"
**"Vaccinium ovatum" (California Huckleberry)
*Sect. "Vaccinium"
**"Vaccinium uliginosum" (Northern (or Bog) Bilberry; syn. "V. occidentale")
*Sect. "Vitis-idaea"
**"Vaccinium vitis-idaea" (Cowberry, Lingonberry)

References

External links

* [http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?12610 Germplasm Resources Information Network: "Vaccinium"]