VACCINIUM VITIS-IDAEA

Vaccinium vitis-idaea Lingonberry In Europe; is a small evergreen shrub in the flowering plant family Ericaceae that bears edible fruit. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra everywhere on the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. It's also very common in middle Finland. I never heard it is cultivated even that is told in internet, but fruit is always collected in the wild.

Copyright Leiah Sariell 2014-

VACCINIUM OXYCOCCOS

Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. They can be found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines. They have slender wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style fully exposed and pointing forward. They are pollinated by bees and on arctic area by gnats. The fruit is a berry that is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.

Cranberries are a major commercial crop in certain American states and Canadian provinces. Most cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, jam, and sweetened dried cranberries, with the remainder sold fresh to consumers. Cranberry sauce is regarded as an indispensable part of traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving menus and some European winter festivals. It is very common in Scandinavian countries also.

Copyright Leiah Sariell 2014-

EMPETUM NIGRUM

Empetrum nigrum is a species of crowberry known as black crowberry which is native to most northern areas of the northern hemisphere, as well as the Falkland Island in the southern hemisphere.

In gardening, it can be grown in acidic soils in shady, moist areas. It can be used for the edible berries, for a purple dye, or as a ground cover. It is a socalled boneberry and doesn't taste good at all but it is very good for the sight if you drink juice made of it.

The metabolism and photosynthetic parameters of Empretrum can be altered in winter-warming experiments.

This plant has tiny leaves arranged alternately. Its stem creeps along the ground. Its fruits are Dark blue oe Black berries.
It grows in open, sunny, wet areas but also in woods on arctic area where are not much trees; in the colder regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The berries are very tart when eaten raw. Cook in a small amount of water and add sugar, if available, to make a jelly. (It's a bone berry so I don't recommend it.

Crowberries may act as a diuretic. They are useful for treating urinary tract infections. Also good for the sight.

There are much wrong knowledge between these blue and ) almost black berries but I live on Arctic area where all the berries may live next to eachother and then it's easy to know what is which one. I'm sure the “American blueberry” is in the fact Vaccinium Uligonosum because the describings of them are just similar to it. It has nothing to do with the Scandinavian blueberry and also there are many berries which I wouldn't put in my mouth and they call one of these Bilberry but that isn't either Blueberry. The way they describe Vaccinium Uligonosum must be the American Blueberry.

Copyright Leih Sariell 2014-

VACCINIUM ULIGONOSUM

Vaccinium uliginosum is native to cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, at low altitudes in the Arctic, and at high altitudes south to the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Caucasus in Europe, and the Sierra Nevada in California and the Rocky Mountains inUtah in North America.

It grows on wet acids soils on heatlands, moreland, tundra, and in the understory of coniferous forests, from sea level in the Arctic, up to 3,400 metres altitude in the south of the range.

Description

Vaccinium uliginosum is a small decidus shrub growing to cm 10–75 centimetres tall, with brown stems The leaves are oval, blue-green with pale net-like veins, with a smooth margin and rounded apex.

The flowers are pendulous, urn-shaped, pale pink, produced in mid spring;depends on the area. The fruit is a dark blue-black berry with a white flesh, edible and sweet when ripe in late summer.

Copyright Leiah Sariell 2014-

VACCINIUM MYRTILLUS

Vaccinium myrtillus is a species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, called blueberry. Regional name in Scandinavia ins blueberry and that has nothing to do with the grown blueberries...not the taste...not the vitamins. Always best in forests.

Fruit

Vaccinium myrtillus has been used for nearly 1,000 years in traditional European medicine. Herbal supplements of V. myrtillus (blueberry) on the market are used for circulatory problems, as vision aids, and to treat diarrhea and other conditions.

In the blueberry fruit is commonly used for the same purposes as the American “blueberry” pies, cakes, jams, cookies, sauces, juices, candies and so on.

Leaf

In traditional medicine, Blueberry leaf is used for different conditions, including diabetes.The National Institutes of Health rates it as "possibly effective for problems with the retina of the eye in people with diabetes or high blood pressure".

Since most people in the world refer to "blueberries", no matter if they mean the European blueberry Vaccinium myrtillus or the American blueberries, there is a lot of confusion about the two nearly identical fruit worldwide exept I have never seen one sigle picture of american blueberry. Finland and Scandinavia have had blueberry from the morning of the world. bilberries have dark blue, strongly fragrant flesh, while American blueberries have white or transclusent and then it's not blueberry at all. mildly fragrant flesh; the blueberries grow as single fruit on low bushes, usually wild in woods of the Northern Hemisphere, but American blueberries grow in a large bush with several fruit at once; bilberries are generally wild plants while American blueberries can be cultivated. Cultivated American blueberries often come from

hybrid cultivars, developed about 100 years ago by agricultural specialists. Blueberry fruit will stain hands, teeth and tongue deep blue or purple while eating; it was used as a dye for food and clothes . American blueberries of section Cyanococcus have white flesh, thus are less staining and don't taste the Scandinavia blueberry at all.

BLUE BERRY SHORTCUT

Of this plant leaves and berries are used.

Leaves: Used a little time equalizing blood sugar.

Blue berries: laxative, holding back inflammations, in last years I have heard from different examinations that blue berry is very good for sight.

And is a very good berry for desert and baking.

Copyright Leiah Sariell 2014-

RUBUS IDAEUS

Rubus Idaeus wild raspberry

                            This picture is from woods

Function

Great for Jam’s, Fruit Salad, pies and all sorts of desserts and baking. The canes give fruit every year.
Raspberry is great for a kitchen garden and you can move it from the woods. Collecting them you have to look because on some years there are much worms but the taste of wil raspberry is so good that if you bother to look them you get an awsome taste. BUT THE WILONES ARE SUPERFOOD AND TASTE BETTER




Copyright Leiah Sariell 2014-

RUBUS ARCTICUS; RUBUS CHAMAEMORUS

RUBUS ARCTICUS

Rubus Arcticus

Rubus arcticus has a northern circumpolar distribution. The common name in (translated) Russian speaks more to its taste: ”berry of kings” and it's very very rare berry. Edibility is also discussed by the Plants for a Future database: Rubus Arcticus

I have never seen this berry even I live in North, I have got into a picture it blooming.

RUBUS CHAMAEMORUS

Perennial plant with long, creeping, branched rhizome. Supraterraneous shoots 5 cm tall in Lapland Leaf blades orbicular-reniform, with 5(7) shallow rounded lobes, irregularly finely dentate. Flowers solitary, terminal, unisexual. Sepals ovate, obtuse, covered with hairs and short stipitate glands. Petals white, obovate. Fruits aggregate drupes, initially red, amber-yellow when ripen, semiopaque, later turning brown.
Occurs in Arctic and swamp zones, in mountain swamps too, in sphagnum bogs, in moist, mossy and moss-lichen tundras.

Use and economic value.

Food, medicine. The fruits have excellent taste and are eaten fresh (also steeped, frozen) and cooked (jam). Good melliferous plant.

When you come from the awful swamp you have so awsome berries that you cannot believe it's true. I have done every year also cheese cakes of jams I,done and take from freezer the berries on the cheesecake. The best berry ever because the Rubus Arcticus is so rare that I never have tasted it. (Living in Lapland)

Copyright Leiah Sariell 2014-