Directory       News       Site Map       Home
         
    Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Key to families | Table of families and genera

Previous taxon Indexes to all accepted names and synonyms:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Previous taxon

ERICACEAE HEATH FAMILY

Gary D. Wallace, except as noted

Perennial, shrub, tree.
Stem: bark often peeling distinctively.
Leaf: simple or 0, generally cauline, alternate, opposite ( whorled), evergreen or deciduous, often leathery, petioled or not; stipules 0.
Inflorescence: raceme, panicle, cyme, or flowers 1, terminal or axillary, generally bracted; pedicel often with 2 bractlets.
Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial, bell-shaped, cylindric, or urn-shaped; sepals generally (0)4–5, generally free; petals generally (0)4–5, free or fused; stamens 8–10, free, filaments rarely appendaged, anthers awned or not, dehiscing by pores or slits; nectary generally present at ovary base, generally disk-like; ovary superior or inferior, chambers generally 1–5, placentas axile or parietal, ovules 1–many per chamber, style 1, stigma head- to funnel-like or lobed.
Fruit: capsule, drupe, berry.
Seed: generally many, winged or not.
± 100 genera, 3000 species: generally worldwide except deserts; some cultivated, especially Arbutus, Arctostaphylos, Rhododendron, Vaccinium. [Kron et al. 2002 Bot Rev 68:335–423] Monophyletic only if Empetraceae included, as treated here. Ledum included in Rhododendron. Non-green plants obtain nutrition from green plants through fungal intermediates. —Scientific Editors: Gary D. Wallace, Thomas J. Rosatti.

Key to Ericaceae

VACCINIUM BLUEBERRY, HUCKLEBERRY
Shrub, [ tree] glabrous to hairy, rhizomed or not, burls generally 0.
Stem: trailing to erect.
Leaf: cauline, alternate.
Inflorescence: raceme or flowers 1, bracted; bud scales present; bractlets generally 2.
Flower: sepals 4–5, 2/3 to fully fused; corolla cylindric to urn- or cup-shaped, petals generally 4–5, ± 2/3 fused, generally white; stamens 8 or 10, filaments generally glabrous, anthers elongate, awned or not, dehiscing by pores on small tubes; ovary inferior, chambers 4–5, or appearing 10 by intrusion of ovary wall, placentas axile, stigma head-like.
Fruit: berry.
Seed: generally many.
400+ species: temperate n hemisphere, tropical mountains, Africa. (Latin: for Vaccinium myrtillus L.)
Unabridged references: [Vander Kloet 1988 The genus Vaccinium in North America]
Unabridged note: Vaccinium oxycoccos L. reported from CA; records lacking.

Key to Vaccinium

V. uliginosum L. subsp. occidentale (A. Gray) Hultén WESTERN BLUEBERRY
NATIVE
Shrub, glabrous, rhizomed or not.
Stem: erect, < 6 dm, or prostrate, generally rooting; twigs not angled, not green.
Leaf: deciduous, 1–2 cm, elliptic to ovate, ± thick, entire, glaucous or not, abaxially visibly but not prominently veined.
Inflorescence: generally ± raceme, flowers 1–4 on leafless older shoots; pedicel not jointed to flower, bractlets 0.
Flower: calyx lobes 4–5, generally > tube, triangular, persistent; anthers awned.
Fruit: < 6 mm diam, blue-black, glaucous.
Bogs, wet meadows; < 3400 m. North Coast, Klamath Ranges, High Cascade Range, High Sierra Nevada; to British Columbia, Montana, Nevada. Part of circumboreal complex needing study. Some NCo (Big Lagoon, Humboldt Co.) plants with prominently veined leaves, fruit > 6 mm diam may be Vaccinium uliginosum subsp. uliginosum, native to lowland n Europe. Jun–Jul [Online Interchange]

Previous taxon: Vaccinium scoparium
Next taxon: Xylococcus

Contact/Feedback

Name search

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) [year] Jepson eFlora, http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html [accessed on month, day, year]
Citation for an individual treatment: [Author of taxon treatment] [year]. [Taxon name] in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, [URL for treatment]. Accessed on [month, day, year].

Copyright © 2012 Regents of the University of California
We encourage links to these pages, but the content may not be downloaded for reposting, repackaging, redistributing, or sale in any form, without written permission from The Jepson Herbarium.


Bioregions in which taxon occurs Markers link to CCH specimen records. If the markers are obscured, reload the page [or change window size and reload]. Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
map of distribution 1

Chart based on elevation range in Manual and elevations and coordinates of CCH records.
Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
Note: About half of the CCH records include both elevation and coordinates.
Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria.
View all CCH records

 

CCH collections by month

Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa.
Blue line denotes Manual flowering time.