24.
Vaccinium pallidum
Aiton, Hort. Kew. 2: 10. 1789.
Blue Ridge or late low-bush blueberry
Cyanococcus liparis
Small;
C. margarettae
(Ashe) Small;
C. pallidus
(Aiton) Small;
C. subcordatus
Small;
C. tallapusae
Coville ex Small;
C. vacillans
(Kalm ex Torrey) Rydberg;
Vaccinium altomontanum
Ashe;
V. corymbosum
Linnaeus var.
pallidum
(Aiton) A. Gray;
V. margarettae
Ashe;
V. vacillans
Kalm ex Torrey;
V. vacillans
var.
crinitum
Fernald;
V. vacillans
var.
missouriense
Ashe;
V. viride
Ashe
Plants
forming small to extensive, open colonies, 0.8-10 dm; twigs green, glaucous, or yellow, ± angled, hairy in lines, often glabrous.
Leaves
deciduous; blade pale green or glaucous abaxially, dark green adaxially, ovate to broadly elliptic, 25-38 × 13-22 mm, membranous to subcoriaceous, margins ± entire, abaxial surface usually glabrous, rarely hairy, eglandular.
Flowers:
calyx green, glaucous, glabrous; corolla greenish white with pink striping, cylindro-urceolate, 4-10 mm; filaments ± glabrous.
Berries
usually blue, glaucous, 4-8 mm diam., glabrous.
Seeds
5-20, ca. 1 mm.
2
n
= 24, 48.
Flowering mid-late spring. Dry, open oak or oak- hickory woods, open pine woods, ledges, abandoned farmland or cut-over deciduous forests; 0-1600 m; Ont.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.
The flowers of
Vaccinium pallidum
are visited primarily by
Andrena carlini
Cockerell and
Bombus
spp. This species occasionally hybridizes with
V. angustifolium
, yielding
V.
×
dobbinii
Burnham.
SELECTED REFERENCE Vander Kloet, S. P. 1978. The taxonomic status of
Vaccinium pallidum
, the hillside blueberries including
Vaccinium vacillans
. Canad. J. Bot. 56: 1559-1574.
