B154 

 (leaf 2) 



20 or 30 miles to gather the fruits. 5 Munson 6 quotes the statement 

 of the California horticulturist T. H. Douglas that box blueberry is 

 "one of California's most beautiful hedge-plants and merits greater 

 commercial prominence." 



Dwarf blueberry (F. cespito' sum) , also known as dwarf bilberry, 

 one of the commonest and best known of the western blueberries, 

 ranges from Labrador to Alaska, and south to California, Colorado, 

 and even to the highest peaks of New York and New England. It is 

 frequently associated with grouse whortleberry (F. scoparium) in 

 the coniferous forests of the West. Dwarf blueberry is a very 

 abundant species but has practically zero palatability. It is a low, 

 spreading shrub from 3 to 12 inches high (or occasionally 18 inches 

 in the var. arbus' cula^ , with round, not angled, branchlets. The 

 rather thin, smooth, shining leaves are reverse-egg-shaped or reverse- 

 lance-shaped, narrowed at the base, and have fine-toothed margins. 

 The pink, red, or white, urn-shaped flowers are solitary and pendu- 

 lous on short stalks in the leaf axils. The sweet blue berries, about 

 one-fourth of an inch in diameter, have a bloom. 



Grouse whortleberry (F. scopafrium, syns. F. erytkrococ 1 'ewm, V. 

 myrtU'lus micropJiyl'l'wn, Hook., 1834, and F. microphyl ' lum 

 (Hook.) Rydb., not F. microphyl' lum Reinw., 1826), ranging from 

 British Columbia to California, northern New Mexico and Alberta, 

 is probably the most abundant and widespread of the western spe- 

 cies of Vacciniwti. 2 This plant is also known as dwarf, red, small, 

 or littleleaf huckleberry and as red alpine blueberry. It has a great 

 altitudinal range, growing at elevations of between about 2,500 and 

 7,500 feet in the Pacific Northwest to between 8,500 and 12,500 feet in 

 Colorado. It is present on all slopes and appears on both dry and 

 moist sites, but is especially characteristic of sandy or gravelly 

 loams; this plant is practically always a component of the under- 

 story of lodgepole-pine stands. Grouse whortleberry, a distinctly in- 

 ferior browse, is practically worthless to poor forage. However, in 

 some localities, it rates as fair or even fairly good forage for sheep, 

 but this is due chiefly to its occurrence where relatively little pala- 

 table forage is available. This species is probably browsed to some 

 extent by deer and other game animals. The stems of grouse whortle- 

 berry average 4 to 8 (sometimes 12) inches in height, with sharply 

 angled, bright green branches. The thin leaves are mostly less than 

 one-half of an inch long, egg-shaped to lance-egg-shaped, pointed at 

 both ends, and finely toothed. The small flowers appear in June and 

 July; the bright red berries ripen from late July until September. 

 The berries, although agreeably flavored, are but rarely gathered 

 for human consumption, being small in size (about three-sixteenths 

 of an inch in diameter) and relatively scant in supply; they are uti- 

 lized bv birds and small animals. 



5 Chesnut, V. K. PLANTS USED BY THE INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 

 U S Dept. Agr., Div. Bot., Contrib. U. S. Natl. Herbarium 7 : 295-422, illus. 1902. 



8 Munson, W. M. THE HORTICULTURAL STATUS OF THE GENUS VACCINIUM. Maine Agr. 

 Expt. Sta. Ann. Kept. (1901) 17: [1131-160, illus. 1902. 



