Blue whortleberry

Vaccinium myrtillus
Heath (Ericaceae)

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Vaccinium myrtillus or European blueberry is a holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortleberry to distinguish it from other Vaccinium relatives.

Description

Vaccinium myrtillus is a small deciduous shrub that grows 10–51 cm (4–20 in) tall, heavily branched with upright, angular to narrow winged, green-colored branches that are glabrous. It grows rhizomes, creating extensive patches The shrub can live up to 30 years, with roots reaching depths of up to 1 metre (3+1⁄2 ft). It has light green leaves that turn red in autumn and are simple and alternate in arrangement. The leaves are 1–3 cm (3⁄8–1+1⁄8 in) long and ovate to lanceolate or broadly elliptic in shape, with glandular to finely toothed margins; they are prominently veined on the lower surface. In winter, the foliage turns deep red and becomes deciduous.

Small, hermaphrodite flowers with thick stems (about 2–3 millimetres or 1⁄16–1⁄8 inch long) grow individually from the leaf axils and nod downward. These flowers, blooming from April to May, have crowns 4 to 6 mm long that are greenish to reddish. The small calyx is fused with minimal lobes on the cup-shaped flower. The rounded, urn-shaped pink petals have short, curved lobes. The 8–10 stamens are short, and the anthers are awned and horned. The four- or five-chambered ovary is inferior with a long style.

From July to September, the plants produce black-blue, flattened, round fruits with a maximum diameter of 1 cm. These multi-seeded berries have calyx remnants on the tip and a blue-gray frosted appearance. Rarely, forms with white, yellow, red, or reddish-spotted berries occur. The small, brownish seeds are crescent-shaped. This species differs from V. corymbosum in that its anthocyanins, which produce color, are found in both the peel and the flesh.

Chromosome count is 2n=24.

Chemistry

Bilberry and the related V. uliginosum both produce lignins, in part because they are used as defensive chemicals. Although many plants change their lignin production – usually to increase it – to handle the stresses of climate change, lignin levels of both Vaccinium species appear to be unaffected. The leaves contain catechins, tannins, quinic acid, arbutin, chlorogenic acid, various glycosides, the fruits contain anthocyanins, pectin, ursolic acid, chlorogenic acid, and ascorbic acid.

V. myrtillus contains a high concentration of triterpenes which remain under laboratory research for their possible biological effects.

Common names

Regional names include blaeberry (Scotland), urts or hurts (Cornwall and Devon), hurtleberry, myrtleberry, wimberry, whinberry, winberry, and fraughan.

Distribution and habitat

Vaccinium myrtillus is a Holarctic species native to almost every country in Europe, north and central Asia, Japan, Greenland, Western Canada, and the Western United States. Within Europe it is only absent from Sardinia, Sicily, the European portion of Turkey, Crete, the Aegean Islands, Cyprus, Crimea, and southern European Russia. It occurs in the acidic soils of heaths, boggy barrens, moorlands, degraded meadows, open forests at the base of pine and mountain spruce forest, and parklands, slopes, and moraines at elevations up to 2,350 m (7,710 ft).

Toxicity

Consuming the leaves may be unsafe.

Uses

The fruits will stain hands, teeth and tongue deep blue or purple while eating and so it was traditionally used as a dye for food and clothes in Britain.

Fruit

Vaccinium myrtillus has been used for centuries in traditional medicine, particularly in traditional Austrian medicine as a tea or liqueur in attempts to treat various disorders. Bilberry dietary supplements are marketed in the United States, although there is little evidence these products have any effect on health or diseases.

In cooking, the bilberry fruit is commonly used for pies, tarts and flans, cakes, jams, muffins, cookies, sauces, syrups, juices, and candies.

Although bilberries are in high demand by consumers in Northern Europe, the berries are harvested in the wild without any cultivation. Some authors state that opportunities exist to improve the crop if cultivated using common agricultural practices.