EMPETRUM 105 



Bogs, wet sandy soil and other situations which combine a sour soil 

 with an abundance of moisture; Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to 

 North Carolina, central Ohio and Indiana. In Minnesota common in 

 the edges of tamarack swamps and sour bogs in the eastern part of the 

 state, extending south across the Minnesota river and northwest as far as 

 Lake Itasca, less common northward than V. oxycoccus. Flowers 

 in June, fruit ripe in the fall. 



The common cranberry of commerce, much cultivated in Wisconsin, 

 less frequently in Minnesota. It should do well in bogs in the region 

 north of Minneapolis and east of the Mississippi river. 



Empetraceae Crowberry Family 



Low, evergreen, heath-like shrubs; leaves small, narrow, sessile, chan- 

 neled on the lower side ; flowers small, dioecious, or rarely polygamous, 

 axillary or in terminal heads, sepals 3, petals 2, 3, or 0, staminate flowers 

 with 2-4 stamens, filaments slender, sometimes with a rudimentary pistil ; 

 pistillate flowers with 2-several-celled ovary, styles 2-several ; fruit a 

 berry-like drupe containing 2-several 1 -seeded nutlets. 



A family of three genera and five species, of Europe and America. 



Empetrum L«i n n e 1753 Crowberry 



Low spreading freely branching shrub with the aspect of a heath ; 

 flowers polygamous, purplish, scattered and solitary in the axils of the 

 leaves, scaly bracted, inconspicuous, calyx of 3 somewhat petal-like 

 spreading sepals, stamens 3 exserted, styles short, stigma 6-9-lobed; fruit 

 a berry-like drupe, black or red, with 6-9 seed-like nutlets. 



A genus of two species, the following and one in southern South 

 America. 



Empetrum nigrum Linne 1753 Crowberry 



Much branched, branches diffusely spreading, gla- 

 brous or puberulous, 6-25 cm. long; leaves crowded, 

 linear oblong, thick, glabrous or slightly puberulent, 

 margin revolute, tip obtuse, 4-7 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. 

 wide; fruit black, 4-6 mm. in diameter-: nigrum, 

 black. 



In rocky places, Greenland to Alaska, south to coast 

 of Maine, the mountains of northern New England and 

 New York, Isle Royale, and the coast of Oregon, Asia 

 and Europe. There are no Minnesota specimens in the 

 herbarium of the University of Minnesota but it has been 



