5.
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 351. 1753.
Lingonberry, partridgeberry, foxberry, airelle vigne-d'Ida
Vaccinium
vitis-idaea
subsp.
minus
(Loddiges, G. Loddiges & W. Loddiges) Hultén;
V. vitis-idaea
var.
minus
Loddiges, G. Loddiges & W. Loddiges
Plants
densely colonial, frequently mat-forming; twigs of previous year green, terete, puberulent, not verrucose.
Leaf blades
pale and glandular abaxially, bright green adaxially, elliptic to obovate, 5-18 × 3-9 mm, glaucous-coriaceous, margins entire, slightly revolute.
Pedicels
4-6 mm.
Flowers:
corolla pinkish white, 3-5 mm; filaments puberulent.
Berries
red, 8-10 mm diam.
2
n
= 24.
Flowering late spring-early summer. Boreal taiga in jack-pine stands, muskegs, raised bogs, dry, rocky barrens, lichen woodlands, exposed habitats, heaths, high moors, headlands, tundras, cliffs, mountain summits; 0-1800 m; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Conn., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., Vt., Wis.; n Eurasia; circumboreal.
The distribution of
Vaccinium
vitis-idaea
in North America extends from northwestern Greenland at 77° north latitude, south to Connecticut at 42° north latitude, and from 45° west longitude (southern tip of Greenland) west to 170° west longitude (Aleutian Islands); it is rare in Connecticut (not collected since the late 1800s), Massachusetts, Vermont, and Wisconsin. This species has been erroneously reported from New York; it hybridizes with
V. myrtillus
in northern Europe, producing
V
. ×
intermedium
Ruthe. The hybrid might be anticipated in North America, but the two species are not known to occur together anywhere in the flora area.