Bog Bilberry

Bog Bilberry 

(Vaccinium uliginosum), a shrub of the family Vacciniaceae. The bog bilberry is from 30 cm to 1 m high. It has dense, smooth leaves that are grayish toward the base and that fall in winter. The blossoms are white or pink. They come in clumps of two to three, rarely singly, and they droop. The berries are blue with a grayish cast.

Bog bilberries are found in the northern hemisphere. In the USSR, they grow in the tundra and forest zones and the upper regions of mountains in the Caucasus, the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East. The bog bilberry grows in the tundra, damp forests, marshes, and subalpine underbrush. The berries are edible, containing sugar, acid, and vitamins A and C. They are used for preserves and dried for storage. Bog bilberries have considerable importance in the far north as a scurvy preventative.