142 HANDBOOK 14 8, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



25. Twigs round or very slightly angled; low, much- 

 branched or tufted shrubs to 1 foot high, often 

 in patches connected by underground stems; 

 berries deep blue with white-waxy "bloom," 

 tipped by disklike flange (calyx); moist sites in 

 mountains, usually at higher altitudes, Cascades, 

 also in Wallowa and Blue Mts., e. Oreg., e. 



Wash. blueberries (Vaccinium spp.). 



28. Shrubs densely tufted, usually less than 8 

 inches high ; twigs slender, shiny brown or 

 hoary with tiny, whitish, curved hairs, rarely 

 with a white-waxy "bloom"; often in patches 

 in old lodgepole pine burns. 

 dwarf blueberry (Vaccinium cespitosum). 3i 

 28. Shrubs much-branched, to nearly 1 foot high; 

 twigs relatively coarse, pale with a white- 

 waxy "bloom," hairless; moist subalpine mea- 

 dows, limited to and common in Cascades, 

 Wash, and n. Oreg., less common south of the 

 Three Sisters. 



delicious (or Cascades) blueberry 

 (Vaccinium deliciosum). 

 24. Bud scales several, overlapping; buds tiny (about 

 )i inch long); leaf scars distinct, semicircular; 

 bundle trace easily seen; twigs round, rigid, as- 

 cending, often with a white-waxy "bloom"; berries 

 blue, 1 to 3, from scaly buds near tips of second- 

 year twigs; much-branched shrubs to 3 feet high, in 

 mountain bogs or marshes, Cascades, Wallowa and 

 Blue Mts., e. Oreg., e. Wash. 



westernbog blueberry (Vaccinium occidentale). 

 23. True end buds present; leafy-shoot and flower buds 

 separate; larger buds with several overlapping bud 

 scales at or near twig tips; smaller side buds often 

 with only 2 visible bud scales, especially near twig 

 base; seed pods (capsules) persistent, stalked, gland- 

 ular-hairy, split clown from top into 4 or 5 parts and 

 separated from central core; calyx lobes persistent 

 at seed-pod base; twugs often appearing whorled; 

 erect shrubs usually 2-6 feet high, poisonous, some- 

 times causing sheep losses on poorly managed summer 

 range; moist mountain sites, Cascades, Wallowa and 

 Blue Mts., e. Oreg., e. Wash. 

 29. Seed pods split into 4 parts, shallowly cupped in 

 4 tiny, glandular-hairy-fringed calyx lobes, clus- 

 tered at tips of second-year twigs and between 

 bases of 2 usually unequally sized first-year twigs 

 (the larger twig usually tipped by a flower-cluster 

 bud and the smaller twig by a leafy-shoot bud) ; 



34 At lower altitudes in mountain areas in both e. Oreg. and e. Wash., there are 

 erect, taller and coarser shrubs with redder twigs than those of dwarf blueberry. 

 These are referred by some botanists to taller dwarf blueberry (Vaccinium ces- 

 pitosum var. arbuscula) ; other botanists regard these coarse shrubs as possibly 

 polyploid and as a separate species (Vaccinium arbuscula). 



