Incubator escapee wiki

Vaccinium

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Automatic taxobox

Vaccinium Template:IPAc-en<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whortleberry), lingonberry (cowberry), and huckleberry. Like many other heath plants, they are restricted to acidic soils.

DescriptionEdit

The plant structure varies between species: some trail along the ground, some are dwarf shrubs, and some are larger shrubs perhaps Template:Convert tall. Some tropical species are epiphytic.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Stems are usually woody. Flowers are epigynous with fused petals and have long styles that protrude from their bell-shaped corollas. Stamens have anthers with extended tube-like structures called "awns" through which pollen falls when mature.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Inflorescences can be axillary or terminal. The fruit develops from an inferior ovary and is a four- or five-parted berry; it is usually brightly coloured, often red or bluish with purple juice. Roots are commonly mycorrhizal, which likely help the plants to access nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in the acidic, nutrient-poor soils they inhabit.<ref name=":0" />

TaxonomyEdit

The genus was first described scientifically by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.<ref name="ing"/> The name Vaccinium was used in classical Latin for a plant, possibly the bilberry or a hyacinth, and may be derived from the Latin bacca, meaning berry, although its ultimate derivation is obscure.<ref>Template:Cite book p. 515.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book p. 187.</ref> It is not the same word as Vaccinum, which means "of or pertaining to cows".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The taxonomy of the genus is complex and still under investigation. Genetic analyses indicate that the genus Vaccinium is not monophyletic.<ref name="kron">Template:Cite journal</ref> A number of the Asian species are more closely related to Agapetes than to other Vaccinium species.<ref name="kron" /><ref>Template:EFloras</ref> A second group includes most of Orthaea and Notopora, at least some of Gaylussacia (huckleberry), and a number of species from Vaccinium, such as V. crassifolium.<ref name="kron" /> Other parts of Vaccinium form other groups, sometimes together with species of other genera.<ref name="kron" /> The taxonomy of Vaccinium can either be resolved by enlarging the genus to include the entirety of the tribe Vaccinieae or by breaking the genus up into several genera.<ref name="kron" />

Two fossil seeds of V. minutulum have been extracted from borehole samples of the Middle Miocene freshwater deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin, West Carpathians, Poland.<ref>Łańcucka-Środoniowa M.: Macroscopic plant remains from the freshwater Miocene of the Nowy Sącz Basin (West Carpathians, Poland) [Szczątki makroskopowe roślin z miocenu słodkowodnego Kotliny Sądeckiej (Karpaty Zachodnie, Polska)]. Acta Palaeobotanica 1979 20 (1): 3–117.</ref>Template:Additional source needed

SubgeneraEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

File:Vaccinium oxycoccos Ypey28.jpg
Vaccinium oxycoccos, the common cranberry, one kind of cranberry

A classification predating molecular phylogeny divides Vaccinium into subgenera and several sections: Template:Div col

Subgenus Oxycoccus
The cranberries, with slender, trailing, wiry non-woody shoots and strongly reflexed flower petals. Some botanists treat Oxycoccus as a distinct genus.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:EOL</ref>

Subgenus Vaccinium
All the other species, with thicker, upright woody shoots and bell-shaped flowers.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> syn. V. vacillans Torr.

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>)

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

  • Sect. Vaccinium
    • Vaccinium uliginosum L. – northern (or bog) bilberry (or blueberry); syn. V. occidentale (northern North America and Eurasia)
  • Sect. Vitis-idaea
    • Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. – partridgeberry, cowberry, redberry, red whortleberry, or lingonberry (northern North America and Eurasia)

Template:Div col end

Distribution and habitatEdit

The genus contains about 450 species,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which are found mostly in the cooler areas of the Northern Hemisphere. However, there are tropical species from areas as widely separated as Madagascar and Hawaii. The genus is distributed worldwide except for Australia and Antarctica, but areas of great Vaccinium diversity include the montane regions of North and South America, as well as Southeast Asia.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Species are still being discovered in the Andes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Plants of this group typically require acidic soils, and as wild plants, they live in habitats such as heath, bog and acidic woodland (for example, blueberries under oaks or pines). Blueberry plants are commonly found in oak-heath forests in eastern North America.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Vaccinium is found in both successional and stable sites, and it is fire-adapted in many regions, withstanding low-intensity burns, and re-sprouting from rhizomes when above-ground tissues are burned off.<ref name=":0" />

EcologyEdit

Vaccinium species are used as food plants by the larvae of a number of Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species. Berries of North American species nourish a variety of mammals and birds, notably including the grizzly bear.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

CultivationEdit

File:Cranberrys beim Ernten.jpeg
Harvesting cranberries, New Jersey, U.S.

Blueberries (sect. Cyanococcus) and cranberries (sect. Oxycoccus) are relatively newly cultivated plants and are largely unchanged from their wild relatives. Genetic breeding of blueberries began around the turn of the 20th century. It was spearheaded by Frederick Coville, who performed many cross-breeding trials and produced dozens of new blueberry cultivars.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> He often tested new cultivars for their flavor, claiming after a long day of tasting that "all blueberries taste the same, and all taste sour."<ref name=":1" />

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project

Template:Taxonbar Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Vaccinium&oldid=35222"