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Monday, February 8, 2021

Blueberries in the Snow

  Haha- you didn't think you'd be seeing BERRIES in February, did you? What I want you to see is that you can easily tell our two common blueberries apart, even in winter.

The really short ones- usually under a foot tall, and barely poking through the snow last week are Lowbush Blueberry, Vaccninium angustifolium. I once told someone this scientific name, and got the response "Geshundeit!" lowbush blueberry plants

But also growing profusely in our area are a taller blueberry. These bushes are generally about two feet tall. I'm pretty sure these are Vaccinium pallidum (formerly V. vacillans. You can tell they are much more shrub-like than the short ones. This one has several common names: Blue Ridge blueberry, or hillside blueberry, or confusingly enough- late or early lowbush blueberry. I suppose this is because it is shorter in relation to highbush blueberry (the cultivated ones at blueberry farms), but it's clearly taller than the one in the top picture. Blue ridge blueberry plants

I learned today that there are at least 28 recognized species of blueberry! (they don't all grow in Michigan) I don't know if you can distinguish any of them by taste, but I certainly can't tell these two apart by their flavor.

Enjoy a picture from their fruting season! blueberrier

In other news: I shoveled more. I actually got out of the driveway, and more to the point, back in again after I went to the bank. I participated in an on-line book promotion event this evening. (You can sign up for other readings in many genres throughout February at Pages Promotion)

See Dead Horse Marsh in Winter

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow on the blueberries. We had a high kind in the ancient swamp out in the country. We used ladder to gather them! Congrats on the shoveling! Keep warm!

Ann said...

I had no idea there were so many species of blueberry.
We've had some snow but not enough that needs shoveling.

Sharkbytes said...

HI Elaine- glad you figured out how to comment

Ann- actually, I didn't either. That seems like a LOT