Text: Native Plant Crossroads. Photo: Bunchberry, Cornus canadensis. Text logo: nature.ca / Canadian Museum of Nature.

Lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium S75-4567.

Lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium.

The lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) can grow as tall as 60 cm, but usually reaches less than 35 cm. It has both erect and spreading branches. Each mature shrub's height is determined primarily by the amount of sunlight it receives: as the length of daylight hours decreases, vegetative (i.e. green) growth stops. The floral buds that will produce next year's berries begin to form at this point. The low height is advantageous because the highest buds are the last to be formed, and they are the least resistant to the deepest cold of winter.

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Image: Allan G. Austin
This image is from a page of Native Plant Crossroads, a Web site created by the Canadian Museum of Nature. Visit the site.