ERICACEAE: Heath Family
KEY TO VACCINIUM SPECIES
1. Twigs with abundant minute wartlike projections ............................ 2
2. Plants in flower usually over 1.5 m; branched many times, crown-forming. Leaf blade usually more than 45 mm ....................3
3. Leaf blade usually more than 1.5 cm wide and 0.7-3.5 cm long; bottomlands, slopes, primarily coastal plain, rare in piedmont (See GROUP J)…………….. V. elliotii
3. Leaf blade usually less than 1.5 cm wide and 3-10 cm long; bogs, wet swamp forest, common in mountains (See GROUP J)…………... V. corymbosum
2. Plants in flower under l m, usually less than 75 cm; branched infrequently. Leaf blade usually less than 40 mm ............................. 4
4. Leaves evergreen ........................................................ 5
5. Leaf blade underside bright green, rarely somewhat glaucous, with a few to many stalked or club-shaped glandular hairs. Berries black (See GROUP A ) ................................................ V. myrsinites
5. Leaf blade underside glaucous and without glands. Berries dark blue and glaucous (See GROUP A) .............................. V. darrowii
4. Leaves deciduous ........................................................ 6
6. Leaf blade underside with at least some stalked or club-shaped glandular hairs (See GROUP J).................. V. tenellum
6. Leaf blade underside without glands .................................. 7
7. Leaf blade margin sharply and uniformly serrate (See GROUP K) ......................... V. angustifolium
7. Leaf blade margin entire or finely and irregularly serrate ................................ 8
8. Leaf blade pale green, mostly glabrous. Twig short-hairy in strips (See GROUP J)........................ V. pallidum
8. Leaf blade green, abundantly hairy. Twig abundantly long-hairy ............................................................... 9
9. Calyx and corolla glandular. Plants of southern Appalachians (See GROUP J)......................... V. hirsutum
9. Calyx and corolla lacking glands. Plants north of Tennessee and North Carolina (See GROUP J)....................................... V. myrtilloides
1. Twigs without minute wartlike projections ..................................... 10
10. Plants trailing; leaves evergreen ......................................... 11
11. Leaf blade ovate or strongly revolute (See GROUP A) ......................................... V. oxycoccus
11. Leaf blade narrowly elliptic to elliptic, flat or nearly so ........... 2
12. Leaf blade narrowly elliptic, upperside glabrous, margin entire and without glands (See GROUP A) ........................... V. macrocarpon
12. Leaf blade elliptic, upperside finely hairy, margin obscurely serrate and glandular (See GROUP H) ........................... V. crassifolium
10. Plants erect; leaves deciduous or somewhat evergreen ...................... 13
13. Bud scales 2 (See GROUP K); calyx lobes 4 (also visible on the berry); leaves lanceolate to ovate, the apex acuminate, the margin regularly and finely serrate with glandular teeth; Corolla lobes 4.............................. V. erythrocarpum
13. Bud scales more than 2; calyx lobes 5 (also visible on the berry); leaves elliptic, obovate, oblanceolate, or nearly round, the apex generally obtuse to rounded, the margin entire to obscurely and irregularly serrate (See GROUP J)................................................ V. stamineum