Vaccinium caesariense
 |
Britton & Brown |
| Botanical name: | Vaccinium caesariense |
| Common name: | New Jersey blueberry |
| Group: | dicot |
| Family: | Ericaceae |
| Growth type: | shrub |
| Duration: | perennial |
| Origin: | native |
| Plant height: | to 5' |
| Foliage: | alternate leaves, simple, elliptical shape; dark green above, lighter underneath, glands on the underside |
| Flower: | 3/8" long, white, sometimes tinged with pale pink |
| Flowering time: | May to June; fruits early July to August |
| Habitat: | woods, thickets, bogs; acidic soils |
| Range in New Jersey: | pine barrens and Cape May county |
| Heritage ranking, if any: | n/a |
| Distribution: |  |
| Misc.: | Most cultivated blueberries are hybridized from this plant. For more information on the cultivation of blueberries, visit Whitesbog.org, where blueberries were first cultivated. Whitesbog Village is located in Ocean County, NJ. Stone says "There seem to be, as stated by Mr. Mackenzie, three forms of tall Blueberry in the New Jersey coastal plain. Material is not available for a satisfactory study of the flowers as compared with the tall Blueberries of eastern Pennsylvania or northern New Jersey, but considering leaves only we have have within our limits, (1) a form with finely serrate leaves (virgatum) somewhat pubescent below, apparently restricted to the Pine Barrens in southern New Jersey, although some specimens from the Cape May peninsula are intermediate between this and the next, the serration being obscure but clearly present; (2) a form with entire leaves somewhat pubescent below, particularly on the veins (corymbosum) and (3) an entire leaved absolutely glabrous form (caesariense)."(625) |