Species
+

Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton

Blueberry, Early Lowbush Blueberry, Early low-bush blueberry, Late Sweet Blueberry

Climate known 47 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Vaccinium angustifolium, commonly known as the wild lowbush blueberry and the low sweet berry is a species of blueberry native to eastern and central Canada, Great Lakes and the northeastern United States.

Text from Wikipedia, “Vaccinium angustifolium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Vaccinium

Vaccinium is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whortleberry), lingonberry (cowberry), and huckleberry. Like many other heath plants, they are restricted to acidic soils.

Text from Wikipedia, “Vaccinium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Aiton
Native to
Manitoba, Labrador, New Brunswick +27
Wild records
1867 in range· 680 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1093mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 105 mm (CHELSA)
Light
8–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1093 mm a year, wettest June at 105 mm, driest February at 69 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -25.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cyanococcus angustifolius (Aiton) Rydb.; Cyanococcus angustifolius var. laevifolius (House) Moldenke; Cyanococcus pensylvanicus (Lam.) Rydb.; Vaccinium angustifolium f. angustifolium; Vaccinium angustifolium f. chiococcum (W.Deane) B.Boivin and 28 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (791 mm of 1093 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 27.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1093 mm a year, wettest June at 105 mm, driest February at 69 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1093 mm a year at the habitat, 791 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 105 mm, driest February at 69 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 796 mm to 1493 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -25.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -25.8 °C, the absolute minimum -36.1 °C, about 156 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -12.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -18.2 °C to -6.4 °C), warmest day 24.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -25.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -4 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from -12 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1093 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1494 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -36.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost30.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-36.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 8–38RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1494 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-4 / -10–1-2 / -8–33 / -2–710 / 4–1417 / 10–2022 / 15–2524 / 19–2723 / 19–2619 / 16–2212 / 9–166 / 1–10-1 / -6–4
Night °C-12 / -18–-6-11 / -16–-6-6 / -10–-21 / -3–47 / 3–1013 / 9–1516 / 13–1816 / 13–1812 / 9–146 / 3–8-0 / -5–3-7 / -14–-3
Rain mm76 / 26–11969 / 24–10773 / 38–12684 / 56–12495 / 75–122105 / 84–129104 / 81–13097 / 81–122103 / 90–129101 / 74–13996 / 50–14890 / 33–142
DLI11 / 9–1317 / 15–1925 / 23–2632 / 29–3436 / 34–3838 / 36–4138 / 35–4033 / 30–3425 / 22–2716 / 14–2010 / 8–138 / 6–11
RH %63 / 58–6862 / 57–6559 / 56–6256 / 54–6157 / 55–6259 / 57–6360 / 58–6460 / 59–6461 / 59–6361 / 58–6361 / 59–6563 / 58–68

Each figure is the median across the 1494 grid cells holding the 1776 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 909:2202 (44.525, -69.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -36.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -25.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1494 distinct grid cells holding the 1776 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 909:2202 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_-70.000, lapse-corrected -45 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 87 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeManitoba, Labrador, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia· introduced: Japan
Kew's description“subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.415, -71.478 · in the densest population, 871 records (47% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1867 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 680 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 225 km away. 4 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 91 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1867 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Vaccinium angustifoliumVaccinium angustifoliumVaccinium angustifoliumVaccinium angustifoliumVaccinium angustifoliumVaccinium angustifoliumVaccinium angustifoliumVaccinium angustifolium

Photographs: (c) treelogical, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Vaccinium angustifolium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant Capacity As Influenced by Total Phenolic and Anthocyanin Content, Maturity, and Variety ofVacciniumSpecies
Ronald L. Prior, Guohua Cao, A. Martı́n, E. Sofić (1998) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Antioxidant Capacity, Vitamin C, Phenolics, and Anthocyanins after Fresh Storage of Small Fruits
Wilhelmina Kalt, Charles F. Forney, A. Martı́n, Ronald L. Prior (1999) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Resveratrol, Pterostilbene, and Piceatannol in Vaccinium Berries
Agnes M. Rimando, Wilhelmina Kalt, James B. Magee, Jim Dewey (2004) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Stability and biological activity of wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) polyphenols during simulated in vitro gastrointestinal digestion
Julieta Correa-Betanzo, Emma Allen‐Vercoe, Julie A. K. McDonald, Kathleen Schroeter (2014) · Food Chemistry
Six-Week Consumption of a Wild Blueberry Powder Drink Increases Bifidobacteria in the Human Gut
Stefano Vendrame, Simone Guglielmetti, Patrizia Riso, Stefania Arioli (2011) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Comparative Pollination Effectiveness Among Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) on Lowbush Blueberry (Ericaceae: Vaccinium angustifolium)
Steven K. Javorek, K. MacKenzie, S. P. Vander Kloet (2002) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Anti-diabetic properties of the Canadian lowbush blueberry Vaccinium angustifolium Ait.
Louis C. Martineau, Audrey Couture, Danielle Spoor, Ali Benhaddou-Andaloussi (2006) · Phytomedicine
Interspecific Variation in Anthocyanins, Phenolics, and Antioxidant Capacity among Genotypes of Highbush and Lowbush Blueberries (VacciniumSectioncyanococcusspp.)
Wilhelmina Kalt, Daniel A. J. Ryan, Joanna Catherine Duy, Ronald L. Prior (2001) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Hypoglycemic activity of a novel anthocyanin-rich formulation from lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton
Mary H. Grace, David Ribnicky, Peter Kühn, Alexander Poulev (2009) · Phytomedicine
Resveratrol in Raw and Baked Blueberries and Bilberries
Mary M. Lyons, Chongwoo Yu, R. B. Toma, Sool Yeon Cho (2003) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Vaccinium 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 75 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.