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Vaccinium is a genus of shrubs in the plant Family Ericaceae including the cranberry, blueberry, lingonberry, bilberry, and huckleberry. The genus contains about 450 species, which are found mostly in the
cooler areas of the Northern Hemisphere, although there are
tropical American species. The plants prefer heath landscapes, as well as open
forests.
The fruit develops from an inferior ovary, and is botanically a false berry.
There are two subgenera:
- Subgenus Oxycoccus: the cranberries, with slender,
trailing, wiry non-woody shoots and strongly reflexed flower petals. Some botanists treat Oxycoccus as a distinct
genus.
- Subgenus Vaccinium: all the other species, with thicker, upright woody shoots and bell-shaped
flowers.
The name Vaccinium is of obscure derivation, but has nothing to do with cows,
despite the similarity in the name to the Latin vacca for a cow.
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