Bailey & Bailey: Woody Plants of National Parks 197 



of the northern states, including the species from which we obtain our com- 

 mercial cranberries. The cranberries are grouped by some botanists into a 

 separate genus, Oxycoccus, since the plants are in many ways so different 

 from the other species of Vacctniiim. The common name comes from crane- 

 berry because the flower and its stem are fancied to resemble the head and 



neck of a crane. 



Field Guide to the Species 



Evergreen shrubs; leaves thick and leathery, smooth and dark green above. 



Slender trailing shrubs; leaves [(^ to S/g inch long; corolla deeply divided into 

 4 pietal-iike lobes. 

 Flowers borne on erect or ascending branchlets with a long leafy shoot 

 above the Rower cluster; berries % to % in in diameter; stems 



rather coarse 1. V. macrocarpon. 



Flowers borne near the ends of the branchlets; berries '74 to Ys '^ch in 



diameter 2. V. oxXicoccus. 



Erect or spreading shrubs 3 to 8 feet high; corolla bell-shaped; Pacific coast 



species 3. V. ovaium. 



Deciduous shrubs; leaves mostly dull green and thinnish. 



Flowers borne in clusters at the ends of the branches; low shrubs. 



Stems and leaves softly hairy all over 4. V. canadense. 



Herbage smooth, or sometimes the leaves hairy below. 



Leaves green on both sides, finely toothed 5. V. anSusiifolium. 



Leaves whitish at least below, mostly not toothed 6. V. pallidum. 



Flowers borne singly (or sometimes 2 or 3 together) ; low or tall shrubs. 



Branchlets rounded, not angled; leaves tapering to a wedge-shaped base. 

 Corollas mostly 4-lobed; leaves not toothed. 



Shrubs to \Yl feet high; leaves oval to reverse-egg-shaped; 



eastern species 7. V. uUginosum. 



Shrubs to 3 feet high ; leaves narrowly reverse-egg-shaped to 



reverse-Iance-shaped ; western species 8. V. occidenlale. 



Corollas 5-Iobed; leaves finely toothed. 



Leaves reverse-egg-shaped to reverse-lance-shaped, green en both 

 sides; corolla ellipsoid; berries '74 inch in diameter 

 _ 9. V. caespilosum. 



Leaves oval to reverse-egg-shaped, pale or whitish below; corolla 

 nearly globose; berries to about % inch in diameter 

 10. V. deliciosum. 



Branchlets more or less angled; leaves not wedge-shaped at base. 



Low plants 3 to 8 inches high ; leaves small, not more than % inch 

 long. 

 Leaves oblong to narrowly egg-shaped, I/4 to '/2 inch long; 



berries red, about l/g, inch in diameter 



1 1. V. scoparium. 



Leaves oval to egg-shaped, '/2 to % inch long; berries about 3/16 

 inch in diameter, dark red to purplish-black with a 



bloom 12. V. oreophilum. 



Plants taller, 1 to 10 feet high; leaves mostly more than ^4 inch long, 

 if smaller then the shrubs at least 3 feet high. 

 Rather tall shrubs with widely spreading branches; leaves oval 

 to oblong egg-shaped, rounded or blunt-pointed at tips, 

 not toothed or rarely few-toothed ; berries globose. 



