Common Name: HEATH FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, 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 (2--5)8--10, free, filaments rarely appendaged, anthers dehiscing by pores or slits, awns 0 or 2(4), seemingly abaxial, reduced or elongate, generally curved; 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.
Genera In Family: +- 100 genera, 3000 species: generally worldwide except deserts; some cultivated, especially Arbutus, Arctostaphylos, Rhododendron, Vaccinium. Note: Monophyletic only if Empetraceae included, as treated here. Ledum included in Rhododendron. Non-green plants obtain nutrition from green plants through fungal intermediates.
eFlora Treatment Author: Gary D. Wallace, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Gary D. Wallace, Thomas J. Rosatti, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: BLUEBERRY, HUCKLEBERRY
Habit: 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.
Species In Genus: 400+ species: temperate northern hemisphere, tropical mountains, Africa. Etymology: (Latin: for Vaccinium myrtillus L.)
Unabridged Note: Vaccinium oxycoccos L. reported from California in FNANM; records lacking.
eFlora Treatment Author: Gary D. Wallace
Reference: Nelson & Lindstrand 2015 Madroño 62:167--180
Unabridged Reference: Vander Kloet 1988 The genus Vaccinium in N.Am.

Habit: Shrub, glabrous to sparsely short-hairy, rhizomatous or not. Stem: erect to decumbent, 0.5--1.7 m; twigs strongly angled, green, glabrous. Leaf: deciduous, 12--46 mm, ovate to obovate, tip acute to obtuse, often sharp-pointed, thin, margin generally rolled under, entire to minutely serrate, ciliate with gland-tipped bristles 0.2--0.6 mm, adaxially green, glabrous, abaxially paler with scattered short hairs. Inflorescence: flowers 1 in axils of lowest leaves of youngest shoots; pedicel recurved, +- 1 cm, bractlets 0. Flower: calyx wavy-margined, persisting in fruit; corolla urn-shaped, pink, greenish, or whitish; anthers awned. Fruit: 6--8 mm diam, dark blue, glaucous.