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| Photo
by Renee Brecht |
Britton and Brown. See
credits below.** |
| Botanical name: |
Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton |
| Common
name: |
cranberry |
| Synonomy: |
Oxycoccus macrocarpus (Aiton) Pursh |
| Group: |
Dicot |
| Family: |
Ericaceae |
| Growth
Type: |
Subshrub; shrub |
| Duration: |
Perennial |
| Origin: |
Native |
| Plant
height: |
4-8" |
| Foliage: |
blunt or rounded tip, 1/4-3/4' long, pale or slightly whitened beneath, persisting over the winter |
| Flower
color: |
pale pink to white |
| Flower
size: |
1/2" long |
| Flowering/fruiting time |
June to August; fruit September - October |
| Habitat: |
bogs |
| Range
in
New Jersey: |
statewide; locally common through the pine barrens |
| Heritage ranking if any: |
n/a |
| Distribution |
 |
| Misc.: |
Obligate wetlands species, i.e., Occurs almost always (estimated probability 99%) under
natural conditions in wetlands.
Vaccinus, of cows, macrocarpon, large-fruited.
Mastadons and cranberries? The legend of how the cranberry got its name may be found here.
Information on cultivation, cultivars, nutrition, recipes, harvest, production, etc. may be found on the American Cranberry page of the University of Wisconsin.
This cranberry is commercially cultivated. Originally it was dry harvested with rakes; now, thanks to innovations by the Whites and other local farmers, is harvested by flooding the bogs.
Witmer
Stone wrote of cranberry in 1911: "The usual procedure is to construct
a dyke or dam across the stream which waters the tract and along the
sides of the area also wherever the natural slope of the land is not
sufficient to serve as a barrier; ditches are then cut through at
intervals and the vines are planted. In the late autumn or early winter
the floodgates are put down and the green bog becomes a spacious lake.
Early in May the water is drawn off and after about two weeks the bog
is again flooded for a few days to drown out certain insect pests which
devour the vines. The bogs occasionally require to be sanded to lighten
the soil and produce better growth. This is done in winter b spreading
the sand over the ice, which when it melts, of course, deposits the
sand evenly over the bog.
"By September first the picking
begins. Some of it is done by hand, but much of it by scoops provided
with long slender fingers, which drawn lengthwise along the vines, pull
the berries off into the hollow of the scoop. The berries that are
scattered or lost from the scoops are often secured by flooding the
bogs again, when they rise to the surface and can be scooped up
wherever they collect. The picking ends about the middle of October and
then the bogs are raked so as to draw all the vines in one direction to
aid the gathering of the next crop. Several different types of berry
have originated as the result of cultivation, a large ovoid one, the
"Howell"; a more spherical berry, the ordinary Jersey form, and a
smaller, darker one, the "Cape Cod". All are mere forms of O.
macrocarpus.
The picking was in old times done by the natives,
but for some years past it has been almost entirely done by Italians,
who are brought down from Philadelphia and other neighboring cities in
large numbers, accompanied by their wives and families, all of whom aid
in the work. Their camps, with blazing fires and music at night, are
quite picturesque, offset as they are by the darkness of the
surrounding forest and cedar swamps." (628)
Library of Congress Photographs of NJ cranberry bogs |
Not sure what a word means? Use Answers.com:
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Sources
**USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 2: 705.
Stone, Witmer.
The Plants of Southern New Jersey.Quartermen Publications, Inc. Boston,
Mass. Reprinted 1973 from 1911 The Plants of Southern New Jersey with
Especial Reference to the Flora of the Pine Barrens and the Geographic
Distribution of the Species.
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