On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. This article is about the North American blueberry. For the Blueberry cream cheese coffee cake with cake mix 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.