Blueberries
are perennial flowering plants with indigo-colored berries (a genus
which also includes cranberries and bilberries). They are the most
common fruits sold as "blueberries" and are native to North
America (commercially cultivated highbush blueberries were not
introduced into Europe until the 1930s).
They are usually erect but sometimes
prostrate shrubs varying in size from 10 centimeters (3.9 in) to 4 meters
(13 ft) tall. In commercial blueberry production, smaller species are
known as "lowbush blueberries" (synonymous with "wild"),
and the larger species are known as "highbush blueberries". The
leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, and 1–8 cm
(0.39–3.1 in) long and 0.5–3.5 cm (0.20–1.4 in) broad. The flowers are
bell-shaped, white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish. The fruit is a
berry 5–16 millimeters (0.20–0.63 in) in diameter with a flared crown at the
end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally dark
blue when ripe. They have a sweet taste when mature, with variable acidity.
Blueberry bushes typically bear fruit in the middle of the growing season:
fruiting times are affected by local conditions such as altitude and latitude,
so the height of the crop can vary from May to August depending upon these
conditions.
Blueberry
is native to North America and is nowadays cultivated also in Europe. In
Finland, blueberries are used much like bilberries. Compared to bilberry,
the flavour of blueberry is very sweet but somewhat bland, lacking the
complexity of flavour of the former. Blueberries are much larger in size than
bilberries and their flesh is almost colourless. Thank you Eeva for this nice card showing the blueberry
plant.
