Vaccinium macrocarpon
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Vaccinium macrocarpon, also called large cranberry, American cranberry and bearberry, is a North American species of cranberry in the subgenus Oxycoccus.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The name cranberry comes from shape of the flower stamen, which looks like a crane's beak.
DescriptionEdit
Vaccinium macrocarpon is a perennial shrub, often ascending (trailing along the surface of the ground for some distance but then curving upwards). The leaf blades are abaxially glaucous and green adaxially. The leaf blades are Template:Convert long,<ref name="tktimb">Template:Cite book</ref> narrowly elliptic to elliptic, and in rare cases oblong.
The pedicels are nodding and slender, measuring Template:Convert. It produces white or pink flowers with four petals,<ref name="tktimb" /> followed by sour-tasting red or pink berries Template:Convert across.<ref>Flora of North America, Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton, 1789. Cranberry, canneberge gros fruits </ref><ref>Aiton, William. 1789. Hortus Kewensis, or, A catalogue of the plants cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew 2: 13 and plate 7 description in Latin on page 13; full-page color illustration on plate 7 (between pages 12 and 13)</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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DistributionEdit
Vaccinium macrocarpon is native to central and eastern Canada (Ontario to Newfoundland) and the northeastern and north-central United States (Northeast, Great Lakes Region, and Appalachians as far south as North Carolina and Tennessee).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is also naturalized in parts of Europe and scattered locations in North America along western Canada (British Columbia) and the western U.S. (West Coast).
UsesEdit
The berries are edible,<ref name="tktimb" /> for which the species is grown commercially as a cash crop.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Many cranberries are grown in wetland soils consisting of alternating layers of organic matter and sand; modern harvesting techniques include temporarily flooding fields, shaking berries loose, and gathering the floating berries.<ref>University of Massachusetts, Natural History of the American Cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Common uses of the berries includes sauce, jelly, juice, and dried fruit.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There is some evidence suggesting that the berries or their juice could be useful in treating or preventing certain urinary tract infections, but this is not certain yet and thus is not substitute for medical management.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Some research suggests cranberries may suppress asymptomatic Helicobacter pylori colonization, but they seem to be an inferior treatment compared to antibiotic therapy in symptomatic patients.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Cranberry fruit rot, which affects V. macrocarpon