On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article blueberry biscuits with icing. This article is about the North American blueberry. For the Eurasian blueberry, see Bilberry.

Blueberries showing various stages of maturation. Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. The genus Vaccinium has a mostly circumpolar distribution, with species mainly present in North America, Europe, and Asia. North American native species of blueberries are grown commercially in the Southern Hemisphere in Australia, New Zealand and South American nations. The Colombian or Andean blueberry, Vaccinium meridionale, is wild-harvested and commonly available locally.

Five species of blueberries grow wild in Canada, including Vaccinium myrtilloides, Vaccinium angustifolium and Vaccinium corymbosum, which grow on forest floors or near swamps. Wild blueberries reproduce by cross pollination, with each seed producing a plant with a different genetic composition, causing within the same species differences in growth, productivity, color, leaf characteristics, disease resistance, flavor, and other fruit characteristics. The flowers are bell-shaped, white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish. They are covered in a protective coating of powdery epicuticular wax, colloquially known as the “bloom”. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.

Note: habitat and range summaries are from the Flora of New Brunswick, published in 1986 by Harold R. A selection of blueberries, showing the typical sizes of the berries. The scale is marked in centimeters. They are still grown in a similar manner to pre-Columbian semi-wild cultivation, i. The highbush varieties are darrowii and corymbosum. Commercially offered blueberries are usually from species that naturally occur only in eastern and north-central North America. Other sections in the genus are native to other parts of the world, including the Pacific Northwest and southern United States, South America, Europe and Asia.

The names of blueberries in languages other than English often translate as “blueberry”, e. Cyanococcus blueberries can be distinguished from the nearly identical-looking bilberries by their flesh color when cut in half. Ripe blueberries have light green flesh, while bilberries, whortleberries and huckleberries are red or purple throughout. Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults. This section does not cite any sources. Blueberry jam is made from blueberries, sugar, water, and fruit pectin.

Blueberry sauce is a sweet sauce prepared using blueberries as a primary ingredient. Blueberries contain anthocyanins, other polyphenols and various phytochemicals under preliminary research for their potential biological effects. A cut blueberry showing how, having been frozen and then thawed, the anthocyanins in the pericarp are able to run into the damaged cells, staining the flesh. Structure of anthocyanins, the blue pigments in blueberries. Blueberries may be cultivated, or they may be picked from semiwild or wild bushes. In North America, the most common cultivated species is V.

Hybrids of this with other Vaccinium species adapted to southern U. Wild” has been adopted as a marketing term for harvests of managed native stands of lowbush blueberries. The bushes are not planted or selectively bred, but they are pruned or burned over every two years, and pests are “managed”. Numerous highbush cultivars of blueberries are available, with diversity among them, each having individual qualities. Carolinas to the Gulf Coast states.

Blueberry bushes often require supplemental fertilization, but over-fertilization with nitrogen can damage plant health, as evidenced by nitrogen-burn visible on the leaves. New Jersey’s cultivated blueberries coming from this town. Every year the town hosts a large festival which draws thousands of people to celebrate the fruit. British Columbia was the largest Canadian producer of cultivated blueberries, yielding 70,000 tonnes in 2015, the world’s largest production of blueberries by region.

New Brunswick having the largest in 2015, an amount expanding in 2016. Highbush blueberries were first introduced to Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands in the 1930s, and have since been spread to numerous other countries of Europe. In the Southern Hemisphere, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe grow blueberries commercially. In Brazil, blueberries are produced in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, São Paulo and Minas Gerais. Blueberries were first introduced to Australia in the 1950s, but the effort was unsuccessful. In the early 1970s, the Victorian Department of Agriculture imported seed from the U. This work was continued into the mid-1970s when the Australian Blueberry Growers’ Association was formed.

In the 21st century, the industry grew in Argentina: “Argentine blueberry production has increased over the last three years with planted area up to 400 percent,” according to a 2005 report by the U. DDT began to be used in blueberry soon after its discovery in 1939, and a few years later in the mid-1940s research began into its use in North America. Because “wild” is a marketing term generally used for all low-bush blueberries, it is not an indication that such blueberries are free from pesticides. Insecticide modes of action must be varied to avoid encouraging resistance in the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii.

Some insecticides can be counterproductive, harming natural enemies of pests as well. Blueberries are naturally relatively unmolested by arthropod pests. Rhagoletis mendax is a quarantine pest in phytosanitary regimes of some countries around the world. Insect resistance was not a priority in breeding programs until about the year 2000, and is still not a high priority.