Vaccinium

Vaccinium is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whortleberry), lingonberry (cowberry), and huckleberry. Like many other ericaceous plants, they are generally restricted to acidic soils.
Description.
The plant structure varies between species: some trail along the ground, some are dwarf shrubs, and some are larger shrubs perhaps tall. Some tropical species are epiphytic. Stems are usually woody. Flowers are epigynous with fused petals, and have long styles that protrude from their bell-shaped corollas. Stamens have anthers with extended tube-like structures called "awns" through which pollen falls when mature. Inflorescences can be axillary or terminal. The fruit develops from an inferior ovary, and is a four- or five-parted berry; it is usually brightly coloured, often being red or bluish with purple juice. Roots are commonly mycorrhizal, which likely help the plants to access nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in the acidic, nutrient-poor soils they inhabit.
Taxonomy.
The genus was first described scientifically by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The name "Vaccinium" was used in classical Latin for a plant, possibly the bilberry or a hyacinth, and may be derived from the Latin "bacca", berry, although its ultimate derivation is obscure. It is not the same word as "Vaccinum" "of or pertaining to cows".
The taxonomy of the genus is complex, and still under investigation. Genetic analysis indicates that the genus "Vaccinium" is not monophyletic. A number of the Asian species are more closely related to "Agapetes" than to other "Vaccinium" species. 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."Vaccinium's" taxonomy can either be resolved by enlarging the genus to include the entirety of the tribe Vaccinieae, or by breaking the genus up into several different genera.
Subgenera.
A classification predating molecular phylogeny divides "Vaccinium" into subgenera, and several sections:
Distribution and habitat.
The genus contains about 450 species, which are found mostly in the cooler areas of the Northern Hemisphere, although there are tropical species from areas as widely separated as Madagascar and Hawaii. The genus is distributed worldwide except for Australia and Antarctica, but areas of great "Vaccinium" diversity include the montane regions of North and South America, as well as Southeast Asia. Species are still being discovered in the Andes.
Plants of this group typically require acidic soils, and as wild plants they live in habitats such as heath, bog and acidic woodland (for example, blueberries under oaks or pines). Blueberry plants are commonly found in oak-heath forests in eastern North America. "Vaccinium" is found in both successional and stable sites, and is fire-adapted in many regions, withstanding low-intensity burns, and re-sprouting from rhizomes when above-ground tissues are burned off.
Ecology.
"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". Berries of North American species nourish a variety of mammals and birds, notably including the grizzly bear.
Fossil record.
Two fossil seeds of †Vaccinium minutulum have been extracted from borehole samples of the Middle Miocene fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.
Production.
Blueberries (sect. Cyanococcus) and cranberries (sect. Oxycoccus) are relatively newly cultivated plants, and are largely unchanged from their wild relatives. Genetic breeding of blueberries began around the turn of the 20th century, and was spearheaded by Frederick Coville who performed many cross-breeding trials and produced dozens of new blueberry cultivars. He often tested new cultivars for their flavor, and claimed that after a long day of tasting, "all blueberries taste the same, and all taste sour."