3.
Vaccinium macrocarpon
Aiton, Hort. Kew. 2: 13, plate 7. 1789.
Cranberry, canneberge gros fruits
Oxycoccus macrocarpus
(Aiton) Persoon
Plants
often ascending, shoots 0.4-1.5 dm.
Leaf blades
glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, usually narrowly elliptic to elliptic, rarely oblong, 5-18 m 2-55 mm, margins entire, slightly revolute.
Inflorescences
in axils of leaflike bracts at base of current year's shoots.
Pedicels
nodding, slender, 2-3 cm, bracteolate; bracteoles 2, greenish white, scalelike, 1-2 mm wide.
Flowers:
calyx lobes relatively small; corolla strongly reflexed at anthesis, white to pink; filaments hairy; anther tubules 1-2 mm.
Berries
red to pink, 9-14 mm diam., smooth.
2
n
= 24.
Flowering late spring-early summer. Bogs, swamps, mires, wet shores and headlands; 0-1400 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; B.C., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Conn., Del., D.C., Ill., Ind., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis.; introduced in Europe.
Vaccinium macrocarpon
is introduced and escaping elsewhere (British Columbia, Oregon, Washington) with respect to its normal range in eastern North America.
SELECTED REFERENCES Bruederle, L. P., M. S. Hugan, and J. M. Dignan. 1996. Genetic variation in natural populations of the large cranberry,
Vaccinium macrocarpon
Ait. (Ericaceae). Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 123: 41-47. Ogle, D. W. 1984. Phytogeography of
Vaccinium macrocarpon
Aiton in the southern United States. Virginia J. Sci. 35: 31-47. Upton, R., ed. 2002. Cranberry Fruit:
Vaccinium macrocarpon
Aiton. Standards of Analysis, Quality Control, and Therapeutics. Santa Cruz.