Vaccinium Myrtillus

''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 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 . It has light green leaves that turn red in autumn and are simple and alternate in arrangement. The leaves are 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 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, white-to-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 diameter up to 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. Its fruit persists for an average of 16.7 days, and bears an average of 25.3 seeds per fruit. Fruits average 85.4% water, and their dry weight includes 31.1% carbohydrates and 2.7% lipids.

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, citing Wiersema, J. H. & B. León (1999), ''World economic plants: a standard reference'', and Huxley, A., ed. (1992), ''The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening'' myrtleberry, wimberry, whinberry, winberry,Henley, Jon
Bilberries: the true taste of northern England
The Guardian, Monday 9 June 2008 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 .

File:Vaccinium myrtillus in the Spandauer Forst 06.jpg, Spandau forest, Germany
File:Bor czermnica kz02.jpg, Pine forest understory in Czermnica, Poland
File:Flora Appennino Tosco Emiliano 008.JPG, Apennine Mountains, Italy

Toxicity

Consuming the leaves may be unsafe.

Uses

Fruit

The berry is edible. 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.

''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.

Leaves

In traditional medicine, the (potentially toxic) leaves were mainly used for treating skin disorders.

See also

* Blaeberry River
* '' Mahonia aquifolium'' (Oregon grape)
* ''Myrtus''

References

Bibliography

*

External links

United States Department of Agriculture plants profile- ''Vaccinium myrtillus''

{{Scottish cuisine

myrtillus
Berries
Flora of Alaska
Flora of Europe
Flora of Greenland
Flora of Iceland
Flora of temperate Asia
Flora of Western Canada
Flora of the Western United States
Flora without expected TNC conservation status
Fruits originating in Asia
Fruits originating in East Asia
Fruits originating in Europe
Fruits originating in North America
Medicinal plants
Plants described in 1753
Subshrubs
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus