Vaccinium macrocarpon (American Cranberry)
Vaccinium microcarpum (Small Cranberry)
Vaccinium oxycoccus (Common Cranberry)
Vaccinium angustifolium (Lowbush Blueberry)
Vacciuium arboreum (Sparkleberry)
Vaccinium ashei (Rabbiteye Blueberry)
Vacciuium atrococcum (Black Huckleberry)
Vaccinium caesium (Deerberry)
Vaccinium corymbosum (Highbush Blueberry)
Vaccinium melanocarpum (Georgia Blueberry)
Vaccinium myrsinites (Evergreen Blueberry)
Vaccinium myrtilloides (Canadian Blueberry)
Vaccinium myrtillus (Bilberry)
Vaccinium occidentalis (Western Blueberry)
Vaccinium ovatum (California Huckleberry)
Vaccinium pallidum (Dryland Blueberry)
Vaccinium parvifolium (Red Huckleberry)
Vaccinium uliginosum (Northern Bilberry)
Vaccinium vitis-idaea (Cowberry)
Vaccinium vitis-idaea var. minus (Lingonberry)
and many more
Ref.: ITIS 23571
Vaccinium is a genus of shrubs in the plant Family Ericaceae including the cranberry, blueberry, lingonberry, bilberry, 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 fruit develops from an inferior ovary, and is botanically a false berry.
There are two subgenera:
- Subgenus Oxycoccus: the cranberries, with slender, trailing, wiry non-woody shoots and strongly reflexed flower petals. Some botanists treat Oxycoccus as a distinct genus.
- Subgenus Vaccinium: all the other species, with thicker, upright woody shoots and bell-shaped flowers.
The name Vaccinium is of obscure derivation, but has nothing to do with cows, despite the similarity in the name to the Latin vacca for a cow.
