cowberry (South Georgia Flora)

cowberry

Vaccinium vitis-idaea

Summary ³

Vaccinium vitis-idaea (lingonberry, partridgeberry, or cowberry) is a short evergreen shrub in the heath family that bears edible fruit, native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. Lingonberries are picked in the wild and used to accompany a variety of dishes in Northern Baltoscandia. Commercial cultivation is undertaken in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Erect to decumbent perennial evergreen dwarf shrub; grows up to 30 cm tall. Leaf blades 10 – 30mm, obovate to elliptic, margins with regular rounded teeth. Flowers arising singly or in clusters, arranged in short terminal racemes; petals fused to form tube with 4-5 lobes, pinkish white. Fruit is a berry, 6-10 mm across, red; dispersed by animals, possibly birds; seeds viable in soil <1 year.

Distribution ⁴

Several sites have been found near Husvik Whaling station.

Comments ⁵

Cowberry could be mistaken for diddle-dee, however the latter has separate male and female plants, its leaf margins are entire and its flowers are brownish/ red (female) or crimson (male).

Sources and Credits

(c) Stefan Jansson, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894180985@N01/1350112132
(c) Kelvin Floyd, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Kelvin Floyd
Adapted by stuwhiterod from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_vitis-idaea
(c) Kelvin Floyd, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Adapted by stuwhiterod from a work by (c) Kelvin Floyd, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

iNat Map

Group	Forb
Category	Non Native

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cowberry

Summary 3

Distribution 4

Comments 5