Bilberry
Scientific name: Vaccinium myrtillus L.
Diagnostic features
Erect to ascending shrub to 50(100)cm.
Stems acutely angled, glabrous.
Leaves 10-30mm, ovate to elliptic, serrate to serrulate, deciduous.
Flowers 1(-2) in leaf-axils, pinkish-red.
Fruit bluish-black with whitish bloom, 6-10mm across, ± globose.
Chromosome number: 2n=24.
Habitat
Native; heaths, moors and woods.
Distribution
Common in suitable places throughout Britain and Ireland, but absent from much of Central & East England.
This species is keyed out on Page 3418 in the Text Key.
Hybrids
Vaccinium x intermedium Ruthe (= Vaccinium vitis-idaea x Vaccinium myrtillus) occurs very locally with the parents in Staffs, Derbys and Yorks, with old or unconfirmed records elsewhere, but is absent from most areas where the parents cohabit; it is convincingly intermediate in all leaf, stem, flower and fruit characters and sets some good seed. Chromosome number: 2n=24. |
