Vaccinium elliottii
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Vaccinium elliottii | ||||||||||||||
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Plant in flower
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Vaccinium elliottii Chapm. |
Vaccinum elliottii (Elliott's Blueberry) is a species of Vaccinium in the blueberry group (Vaccinium sect. Cyanococcus). It is native to the southeastern United States, from southeastern Virginia south to Florida, and west to Arkansas and Texas.
It is a deciduous shrub 2-4 m tall, with small, simple ovoid-acute leaves 15-30 mm long with a finely serrated margin. The flowers are pale pink, bell-shaped, 6-8 mm long, opening in the early spring before the new leaves appear. The fruit is an edible berry 5-8 mm diameter, blue-black, only rarely with a whitish waxy bloom; they ripen from late spring (in Florida) through summer.
[edit] Cultivation and uses
It produces a particularly large yield of somewhat sour berries. It is popular for late-season fruit.