Vaccinium myrtillus

The genus Vaccinium has at least three theories as to its origin. The species name refers to the resemblance of its leaves to that of common myrtle. The name bilberry is primarily applied to Vaccinium myrtillus, but is also an alternate name for the genus Vaccinium as a whole. The name bilberry appears to be an English borrowing from Old Norse being very similar to the Danish , used for the same plant. whortles, and tracleberry, but is also sometimes used to mean V. myrtillus or other species of the blueberry genus. Regional names include blaeberry (in Scotland), (in Scottish Gaelic), urts or hurts (Cornwall and Devon), hurtleberry, myrtleberry, wimberry, whinberry, winberry, and fraughan. ==Description==

Vaccinium myrtillus is a small deciduous shrub that grows tall, heavily branched with upright, angular to narrow winged, green-colored branches that are glabrous. It grows rhizomes, creating extensive patches. The shrub can live up to 30 years, with roots reaching depths of up to . It has light green leaves that turn red in autumn and are simple and alternate in arrangement. The leaves are long and ovate to lanceolate or broadly elliptic in shape, with glandular to finely toothed margins; In winter, the foliage turns deep red and becomes deciduous. Small, hermaphrodite flowers with thick stems (about long) grow individually from the leaf axils and nod downward. These flowers, blooming from April to May, have crowns 4 to 6 mm long that are greenish to reddish. The small calyx is fused with minimal lobes on the cup-shaped flower. The rounded, urn-shaped, white-to-pink petals '' (bottom) Chemistry Bilberry and the related V. uliginosum both produce lignins, in part because they are used as defensive chemicals. Although many plants change their lignin production – usually to increase it – to handle the stresses of climate change, lignin levels of both Vaccinium species appear to be unaffected. V. myrtillus contains a high concentration of triterpenes which remain under laboratory research for their possible biological effects. == Distribution and habitat ==

Vaccinium myrtillus is a Holarctic species native to almost every country in Europe, north and central Asia, Japan, Greenland, Western Canada, and the Western United States. Within Europe it is only absent from Sardinia, Sicily, the European portion of Turkey, Crete, the Aegean Islands, Cyprus, Crimea, and southern European Russia. It occurs in the acidic soils of heaths, boggy barrens, moorlands, degraded meadows, open forests at the base of pine and mountain spruce forest, and parklands, slopes, and moraines at elevations up to . File:Vaccinium myrtillus in the Spandauer Forst 06.jpg|Spandau forest, Germany File:Bor czermnica kz02.jpg|Pine forest understory in Czermnica, Poland File:Flora Appennino Tosco Emiliano 008.JPG|Apennine Mountains, Italy == Toxicity ==

Consuming the leaves may be unsafe. == Uses ==

Fruit The berry is edible. Vaccinium myrtillus has been used for centuries in traditional medicine, particularly in traditional Austrian medicine as a tea or liqueur in attempts to treat various disorders. Bilberry dietary supplements are marketed in the United States, although there is little evidence these products have any effect on health or diseases. In cooking, the bilberry fruit is commonly used for pies, tarts and flans, cakes, jams, muffins, cookies, sauces, syrups, juices, and candies. Leaves In traditional medicine, the (potentially toxic) leaves were mainly used for treating skin disorders. == See also ==