Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Commercial blueberries—both wild (lowbush) and cultivated (highbush)—are all native to North America. The highbush varieties were introduced into Europe during the 1930s. Blueberries are usually prostrate shrubs that can vary in size from 10 centimeters (4 inches) to 4 meters (13 feet) in height. In the commercial production of blueberries, the species with small, pea-size berries growing on low-level bushes are known as "lowbush blueberries" (synonymous with "wild"), while the species with larger berries growing on taller, cultivated bushes are known as "highbush blueberries". In 2024, Canada was the leading producer of lowbush blueberries, while the United States produced 29% of the world's supply of highbush blueberries.
Description
Many species of blueberries grow wild in North America, including Vaccinium myrtilloides, V. angustifolium and V. corymbosum, which grow on forest floors or near swamps. Wild blueberries reproduce by cross pollination, with each seed producing a plant with a different genetic composition, causing within the same species differences in growth, productivity, color, leaf characteristics, disease resistance, flavor, and other fruit characteristics. The mother plant develops underground stems called rhizomes, allowing the plant to form a network of rhizomes creating a large patch (called a clone) which is genetically distinct. Floral and leaf buds develop intermittently along the stems of the plant, with each floral bud giving rise to 5–6 flowers and the eventual fruit. Wild blueberries prefer an acidic soil between 4.2 and 5.2 pH and only moderate amounts of moisture. They have a hardy cold tolerance in their range in Canada and the northern United States. Fruit productivity of lowbush blueberries varies by the degree of pollination, genetics of the clone, soil fertility, water availability, insect infestation, plant diseases, and local growing conditions. Wild (lowbush) blueberries have an average mature weight of 0.3 grams (1⁄128 oz). Lowbush blueberries, sometimes called "wild blueberries", are generally not planted by farmers, but rather are managed on berry fields called "barrens". Cultivated highbush blueberries prefer sandy or loam soils, having shallow root systems that benefit from mulch and fertilizer. The leaves of highbush blueberries can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, and 1–8 cm (1⁄2–3+1⁄4 in) long and 0.5–3.5 cm (1⁄4–1+3⁄8 in) broad. The flowers are bell-shaped, white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish. The fruit is a berry 5–16 mm (3⁄16–5⁄8 in) in diameter with a flared crown at the end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally uniformly blue when ripe. They are covered in a protective coating of powdery epicuticular wax, colloquially known as the "bloom". They generally have a sweet taste when mature, with variable acidity. Blueberry bushes typically bear fruit in the middle of the growing season: fruiting times are affected by local conditions, such as climate, altitude, and latitude, so the time of harvest in the northern hemisphere can vary from May to August.
Identification Commercially offered blueberries are usually from species that naturally occur only in eastern and north-central North America. Other sections in the genus are native to other parts of the world, including the Pacific Northwest and the southern United States, South America, Europe and Asia. Other wild shrubs in many of these regions produce similar-looking edible berries, such as huckleberries and whortleberries (North America) and bilberries (Europe). These species are sometimes called "blueberries" and are sold as blueberry jam or other products. The names of blueberries in languages other than English often translate as "blueberry", e.g. Scots blaeberry and Norwegian blåbær. blaeberry, blåbær and French myrtilles usually refer to the European native V. myrtillus (bilberry), while bleuets refers to the North American blueberry.
Species
Note: habitat and range summaries are from the Flora of New Brunswick, published in 1986 by Harold R. Hinds, and Plants of the Pacific Northwest coast, published in 1994 by Pojar and MacKinnon.
Some other blue-fruited species of Vaccinium:
Vaccinium koreanum (Korean blueberry) Vaccinium myrtillus (bilberry or European blueberry) Vaccinium uliginosum (bog bilberry/blueberry, northern bilberry or western blueberry)
The lowbush varieties are V. angustifolium, V. boreale, V. mytilloides, V. pallidum, and V. angustifolium × V. corymbosum. They are still grown similarly to pre-Columbian semi-wild cultivation, i.e. slash and burn. The highbush varieties are darrowii and corymbosum. Rabbiteye (V. ashei/V. virgatum) differ from both high- and lowbush.
Distribution
Vaccinium has a mostly circumpolar distribution, with species mainly present in North America, Europe, and Asia. Many commercially available species with English common names including "blueberry" are from North America, particularly Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States for wild (lowbush) blueberries, and several US states and British Columbia for cultivated (highbush) blueberries. North American native species of blueberries are grown commercially in the Southern Hemisphere in Australia, New Zealand and South American nations. Vaccinium meridionale (the Andean blueberry) is wild-harvested and commonly available locally. Several other wild shrubs of the genus Vaccinium also produce commonly eaten blue berries, such as the predominantly European V. myrtillus and other bilberries, which in many languages have a name that translates to "blueberry" in English.
Cultivation
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