ERICACEAE HEATH FAMILY 
LOW-BUSH BLUEBERRY 
Vaccinium pennsylvanicum Lam. 
This plant furnishes some of our market blueberries. It 
grows only in the dry sandy or rocky areas of the north, such 
as are about Lake Michigan, near Kankakee, at Starved Rock 
and in Ogle county. It is also 
known in the mountains of New 
York and New England, and far 
to the northeast. 
The Low-bush Blueberry is a 
branching shrub 6-24 inches high, 
with green, somewhat warty 
branches that are without hairs. 
The alternate leaves are green 
and smooth on both sides, and 
are very finely toothed. 
The small clusters of white or 
occasionally pinkish flowers are 
produced in May and June. The 
flower parts are attached above 
the ovary: the calyx with 5 short 
lobes that persist on the fruit, 
and the corolla oblong-bell shaped, 
slightly narrowed near the top 
and with 5 spreading or curved 
teeth at the end. There are Io 
stamens whose anthers are with- 
out awns and whose pollen sacs 
are prolonged to form tubes that 
open by pores at the ends. The 
single style is straight and the 
stigma small. The fruits are 
many-seeded berries, very sweet 
and blue or nearly black and rarely white or reddish when ripe 
in June or July. 
The Late Low Blueberry, Vaccinium vacillans Kalm, is also 
found in Illinois. It is similar but the oval leaves are very pale be- 
neath and are often entire. The fruits are smaller. The calyx is 
usually reddish and the corolla greenish yellow tinged with red. 
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