15. Vaccinium LINNAEUS Sp. Pl. 1: 349. 1753; Gen. Pl., ed. 5. 166 (1754). --Lectotype:

Vaccinium myrtillus L.

Reference: SLEUMER, H. O., Die Arten der Gattung Vaccinium L. in Zentral- und Sudamerika. Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 13: 111--140 (1936).

Shrubs or rarely trees, often rhizomatous. Leaves alternate, persistent or deciduous, margin entire or serrate, usually pinnately nerved, rarely plinerved, petiole short. Inflorescence axillary, developing from the buds of the previous season, racemose or rarely only 1--2-flowered, the flowers borne in the axil of the floral bract or a leaf; pedicel usually bibracteolate. Flowers 4--5-merous, usually without odor; aestivation imbricate (V. crenatum , V. floribundum ); calyx articulate with the pedicel (in Ecuador) or continuous; hypanthium cylindric to globose; lobes rarely obsolete; corolla gamopetalous, cylindric, urceolate, or campanulate, white, greenish, red or yellowish, the lobes rarely parted almost to the base; stamen 8 or 10, equal, about equalling corolla; filaments distinct, longer than the anthers, with or without spurs, sometimes (in V. floribundum ) with apparently vestigial spurs; anthers lacking disintegration tissue; thecae smooth or papillate; tubules dehiscing by terminal pores or rarely oblique clefts; pollen without viscin strands; ovary completely or partly inferior, 4--5 (-falsely 10)-locular; stigma small, simple or somewhat capitate. Fruit a berry, 5--many seeded, crowned by the persistent calyx lobes and capped by the conspicuous nectariferous disc; seeds sometimes with mucilaginous sheath.

Vaccinium is a genus of perhaps 300 species primarily of the Northern Hemisphere, mostly montane in the tropics; three species are found in Ecuador.

1a.

Leaves distichous, usually somewhat asymmetric; flowers solitary

......................................................................................................V. distichum

1b.

Leaves spirally arranged, symmetric; flowers in 1-many flowered racemes.

2a.

Leaves with the base narrowed, attenuate, decurrent, the margin remotely and conspicuously crenate, the venation prominently raised on both surfaces, often red beneath; inflorescence shortracemose, 1--3-flowered, glabrous; floral bract and bracteoles small, persistent, the margins glandular; prostrate, subshrubs; corolla dark red; calyx lobes glandular-margined

............................................................................................V. crenatum

2b.

Leaves with the base broad, rounded not decurrent, the margin minutely serrate, the venation impressed above, raised but obscure beneath, not red beneath; inflorescence racemose, 6--10-flowered, usually pilose; floral bract and bracteoles long, deciduous, eglandular; erect shrub except above 4000 m when spreading and with tiny leaves; corolla white often tinged pink to rose; calyx lobes eglandular

............................................................................................V. floribundum