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Vaccinium scoparium; photograph (c) Jared Lincenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Jared Lincenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-03

Vaccinium scoparium Leiberg ex Coville

Dwarf red whortleberry; Grouseberry; Little-leaved huckleberry; Red alpine blueberry

Ericaceae · Alberta, British Columbia +11

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Vaccinium scoparium Leiberg ex Coville: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Leiberg.

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Vaccinium scoparium, photograph (c) Daughter Dad, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vaccinium scoparium, photograph (c) Oliver Stringham, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vaccinium scoparium, photograph (c) justanotherbirdbrain, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vaccinium scoparium, photograph (c) Jake Anderson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vaccinium scoparium, photograph (c) Charles Van Arsdall, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vaccinium scoparium, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 56 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-26.9°C
Record low -43.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
21°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
981mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Vaccinium scoparium is a species of huckleberry known by the common names grouse whortleberry, grouseberry, and littleleaf huckleberry.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Vaccinium scoparium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Vaccinium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (676 mm of 928 mm) takes 8 months, October to January and March to June. Mean temperature moves 22.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to July and September to December.

Rain

928 mm in the median year at the habitat, 676 mm of it October to January and March to June. Wettest month May at 97 mm, driest month August at 57 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 636 mm to 1,943 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 981 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 928 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -26.9 °C, the absolute minimum -43.6 °C, 10,497 frost nights in 44 years, 238.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -13.3 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -18.5 °C to -7.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -26.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +454 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Vaccinium scoparium through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 21 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -13.3 °C; 928 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-60°-40°-20°0°20°40°frost29.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-43.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 9–47RH 50–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 722 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-4 / -8–0-2 / -6–21 / -3–45 / 1–810 / 6–1416 / 12–1921 / 17–2421 / 17–2416 / 12–198 / 4–12-1 / -5–4-5 / -10–-1
Night °C-12 / -17–-7-12 / -16–-6-9 / -13–-5-6 / -9–-2-2 / -5–23 / 0–67 / 4–97 / 4–93 / -1–6-3 / -7–1-10 / -14–-4-13 / -19–-7
Rain mm83 / 34–27867 / 30–21375 / 41–19979 / 46–13997 / 64–14091 / 55–14962 / 29–10857 / 27–10366 / 39–9874 / 46–15989 / 41–30088 / 38–337
DLI11 / 7–1718 / 14–2426 / 22–3336 / 32–4242 / 38–4745 / 41–5047 / 42–5041 / 36–4432 / 27–3621 / 16–2612 / 8–189 / 6–14
RH %62 / 57–6861 / 57–6460 / 56–6357 / 54–6156 / 52–6054 / 48–5950 / 45–5750 / 45–5652 / 48–5756 / 52–6162 / 55–6862 / 57–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 722 grid cells holding the 1173 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 858:1308 (47.075, -114.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -43.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -26.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 722 distinct grid cells holding 1173 of the 1173 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 858:1308 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 47.00_-114.375, lapse-corrected +454 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1834 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker45.369, -121.698 · in the densest population, 1108 records (62% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1792 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1173 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 912 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 74 km away. 619 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1792 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Vaccinium scoparium, photograph 1did not loadVaccinium scoparium, photograph 2did not loadVaccinium scoparium, photograph 3did not loadVaccinium scoparium, photograph 4did not loadVaccinium scoparium, photograph 5did not loadVaccinium scoparium, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Daughter Dad, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Oliver Stringham, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) justanotherbirdbrain, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jake Anderson, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Charles Van Arsdall, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Agoseris aurantiaca Agoseris aurantiaca Orange agoseris Photo: CC BY, KateEucephalus engelmannii Eucephalus engelmannii Engelmann's aster Photo: CC0, Sue ElwellMicranthes occidentalis Micranthes occidentalis Western saxifrage Photo: CC BY, Kerstin ReifenrathPedicularis bracteosa Pedicularis bracteosa Bracted lousewort Photo: CC0, author not statedAbies lasiocarpa Abies lasiocarpa Subalpine fir Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadHedysarum occidentale Hedysarum occidentale Western sweet-vetch Photo: CC BY, John Brew

Other Vaccinium 68 in the reference

Vaccinium acrobracteatum Ericaceae Vaccinium angustifolium Vaccinium angustifolium Lowbush blueberry Photo: CC0, author not statedVaccinium arboreum Vaccinium arboreum Sparkleberry Photo: CC0, author not statedVaccinium arctostaphylos Vaccinium arctostaphylos Caucasian whortleberry Photo: CC BY, Анна Vaccinium ashei Ericaceae Vaccinium auriculifolium Ericaceae Vaccinium bancanum Ericaceae Vaccinium bracteatum Vaccinium bracteatum Sea bilberry Photo: CC BY, Jacy ChenVaccinium cespitosum Vaccinium cespitosum Dwarf bilberry Photo: CC0, author not stated Vaccinium clementis Ericaceae Vaccinium corymbosum Vaccinium corymbosum Highbush blueberry Photo: CC BY, Tom Scavo Vaccinium cumingianum Ericaceae all 69 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Vaccinium erythrococcum; Vaccinium myrtillus var. microphyllum. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Vaccinium microphyllum (Hook.) Howell and Vaccinium microphyllum (Hook.) Rydb. is an older name of this species, not Vaccinium microphyllum, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Leiberg ex Coville
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado +10
Wild records
1792 in range · 912 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8383191 is Vaccinium scoparium Leiberg; the page links Kew's Vaccinium scoparium Leiberg ex Coville, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 47.00_-114.375, lapse-corrected +454 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 262093-2 is Kew's for Vaccinium scoparium Leiberg ex Coville
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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