WorldFloraDB - Vaccinium arboreum

Characteristics

A shrub or small tree. It has a short trunk. The crown is irregular. The branches are crooked. It grows 7.6 m high. The bark is light reddish brown and thin. It is covered with fine scales. The trunk is 15 cm across. The leaves are small and fall off during the year. The leaves are 1.2-4.5 cm long by 0.6-2.5 cm wide. They are narrowly oval and blunt or rounded at the tip. They may have small teeth. There is a network of fine veins. The leaves are shiny and dark green above and paler underneath. The flowers are 6 mm long and wide. They are bell shaped and have a slightly 5-lobed corolla. The droop on stalks and are in clusters 5-7.5 cm long. The fruit are 6 mm across. They are shiny black berries. They contain 8-10 seeds. They have a thin sweet pulp. The berries are often classed as inedible.

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Divergently branched shrub to 5 m; lvs firm, deciduous, oblanceolate to obovate, 2–5 cm, entire, narrowed to a short petiole, shining above, dull and sometimes puberulent beneath; fls few in a short raceme or solitary, on pedicels 6–10 mm; cor white, obovoid, 4.5–5.5 mm, constricted at the throat; stamens included; anthers with 2 divergent dorsal spurs 1–1.2 mm and erect terminal tubules 1.5 mm; style slightly exsert; fr black, inedible. Dry, sandy or rocky woods; se. Va. to Ky., s. Ind., Mo., and se. Kans., s. to Fla. and Tex. May, June. (Batodendron a.)

Shrubs or trees, trunks to 35 cm diam. at breast height; twigs of current season reddish green, glabrous, glaucous, or glandular-hairy, not verrucose. Leaf blades pale green, glaucous, obovate to oblong, 22-40 × 12-20 mm, coriaceous, surfaces glabrous or glandular-hairy abaxially, glabrous and lustrous adaxially. Inflorescence bracts ± persistent. Pedicels slender, 0.8-1.2 cm. Flowers: calyx 21-29 × 7-13 mm; corolla white, 3-5 mm; filaments ciliate. Berries shiny black, 7-9 mm diam. 2n = 24.

Life form

perennial

Growth form

tree

Growth support

free-standing

Foliage retention

evergreen

Sexuality

hermaphrodite

Pollination

entomogamy

Spread

-

Mature width (meter)

0.15

Mature height (meter)

5.0

Root system

-

Rooting depth (meter)

0.3

Root diameter (meter)

-

Flower color

-

Blooming months

Jan	Feb	Mar
Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep
Oct	Nov	Dec

Fruit color

-

Fruiting months

-

Nitrogen fixer

-

Photosynthetic pathway

c3

Environment

Moist sandy soils by ponds and streams. Usually found in most shady slightly alkaline soils along stream banks, bluffs, hammocks and in open woods. Sandy or rocky habitats, usually xeric woodlands; at elevations up to 800 metres.

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It is a warm temperate plant. They grow in sandy and rocky dry uplands. It the SE of the USA they grow to 760 m altitude. It suits warmer places and is not fully hardy to frost. It grows in very acidic soils.

Light
Soil humidity
Soil texture
Soil acidity
Soil nutriment	-
Hardiness (USDA)

Usage

The fruit are dry with little taste. They are sometimes eaten. They are used in pies, jellies and jams.

Uses	gene source material medicinal wood
Edible	fruits
Therapeutic use	Diarrhea (unspecified), Dysentery (unspecified), Sore(Throat) (unspecified), Swelling (unspecified), Tonic (unspecified), Poultice (unspecified)
Human toxicity	-
Animal toxicity	-

Cultivation

It can be grown from seed. It is hard to grow from cuttings.

Mode	cuttings seedlings
Germination duration (days)	365
Germination temperacture (C°)	18 - 23
Germination luminosity	-
Germination treatment	-
Minimum temperature (C°)	-
Optimum temperature (C°)	-
Size	-
Vigor	-
Productivity	-