BLUEBERRY

Low Sweet Blueberry
(Vaccinium angustifolium)

Common Blueberry
 (Vaccinium myrtilloides)

Though most people think they are just picking "blueberries", there are, in fact, two kinds of blueberry in Manitoba. Both are very common and they are not easy to tell apart at a glance. On closer inspection you can tell the two species apart by the appearance of the berry and the hairiness of the leaves. Fruits of the common blueberry (V. myrtilloides) have a pale blue "bloom" (a waxy powder) covering them and the leaves are smooth-edged and covered in soft hairs. Low sweet blueberry (V. angustifolia) has no bloom on the berries and has hairless leaves with toothed edges.
Some authors consider the common blueberry to be a subspecies (different variety) of the low sweet blueberry.

Both our blueberries are low-growing plants (to a height of 40 cm). They are spreading shrubs with thin woody branches that persist from year to year. The plants flower from May through June and sometimes into early July. The berries ripen as early as mid-July, but peak season in southern Manitoba is usually late July through August (later further north). The lengthy flowering period means that the berries ripen over a long span of time, too. Berries can persist on the plants until well into September.

Both species occur widely throughout forested parts of Manitoba, though their chief habitat is in the boreal forest region. They prefer well drained locations with sandy soils. Blueberries are early colonizers of disturbed woodlands. Their seeds are spread by the many animals and birds that eat the berries. Initially prolific in growth and berry production, as the forest grows and ages, and the blueberry plants are increasingly shaded, they struggle to produce only a few berries. After forest fires or logging removes the shading trees, blueberry production can explode! For many years after a fire or cut the existing blueberry plants will produce prolifically, until the forest canopy closes in again.

Blueberries are an important food resource for many animals. Bears, wolves, foxes, skunks, squirrels, mice and a host of bird species will eat, and can come to depend on, blueberries. Years with poor production can mean hardship for black bears, which are particularly dependent on berries to put on fat for their winter hibernation. Poor blueberry years usually results in "bear problems" in provincial parks and campgrounds. In good berry years, it's unusual to see bears around human habitation. Blueberries are important for people, too. They represent a significant "cash crop" for people living in forested parts of Manitoba. By late July, "blueberry stands" are a common site along Manitoba's roadways.
 

The pigments in the skin of the berries that make blue berries look blue are anthocyanins, the same plant pigments that produce vivid red fall colours in leaves (see Fall Colours in our Autumn Issue). Typically, plants that produce anthocyanins in berries will also produce them in the dying leaves and show good fall colours.