Vaccinium arboreum

Vaccinium arboreum
Leaves and immature fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Vaccinium
Species: V. arboreum
Binomial name
Vaccinium arboreum
Marshall 1785
Synonyms[1]

Vaccinium arboreum (sparkleberry or farkleberry) is a species of Vaccinium native to the southeastern and south-central United States, from southern Virginia west to southeastern Nebraska, south to Florida and eastern Texas, and north to Illinois.[3][4]

Description

Vaccinium arboreum is a shrub (rarely a small tree) growing to 3–5 m (7.5-12.5 feet) rarely 9 m) (22.5 feet) tall, with a diameter at breast height of up to 35 cm (14 inches). The leaves are evergreen in the south of the range, but deciduous further north where winters are colder; they are oval-elliptic with an acute apex, 3–7 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with a smooth or very finely toothed margin. Sparkleberry grows on sand dunes, hammocks, dry hillsides, meadows, and in rocky woods. It also grows on a variety of moist sites such as wet bottomlands and along creek banks.[5]

The flowers are white, bell-shaped, and 3–4 mm (0.12-0.16 inches) in diameter with a five-lobed corolla, produced in racemes up to 5 cm (2 inches) long. The fruit is a round dry berry about 6 mm (0.16 inches) in diameter, green at first, black when ripe, edible but bitter and tough.[5]

Natural range: Vaccinium arboreum

References

  1. ↑ Tropicos, Vaccinium arboreum Marshall
  2. ↑ The Plant List, Vaccinium arboreum var. glaucescens (Greene) Sarg.
  3. ↑ USDA; Native Distribution - V. arboreum . accessed 11.10.2010
  4. ↑ Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  5. 1 2 Flora of North America, Vaccinium arboreum Marshall, 1785. Farkleberry


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