Hillside Blueberry

Hillside blueberry, yet another important shrub in the forests of southeastern Massachusetts, is often confused with either lowbush blueberry or black huckleberry. The epithet pallidum (pale) points out a feature of hillside blueberry helpful for identification: its foliage is usually of much paler green, as compared with leaves of lowbush blueberry, and the difference is especially striking in spring. Of the three blueberry species in eastern Massachusetts (lowbush, hillside, and highbush), hillside blueberry occupies an intermediate position as far as the height: it usually is 2-3 times taller than lowbush blueberry and has wider leaves. Hillside and lowbush blueberry have somewhat different habitat requirements, hillside blueberry more likely being forest understory species, while lowbush blueberry is a shrub of more open habitats, often growing high up on rocks or else in frost pockets of Myles Standish SF. The name “hillside blueberry” is actually a direct translation of a formerly used Latin name (a synonym)—Vaccinium vacillans. You now know how to differentiate between lowbush and hillside blueberry, but what about black huckleberry with which hillside blueberry is also often mixed? This is not difficult, either, even during the wintertime, when both stay leafless. Huckleberry produces “real” woody stems covered with dark bark. They are not flexible, breaking easily when bent. Hillside blueberry, on the contrary, has flexible green stems that appear “not enough woody,” though it is still considered a shrubby plant.

Vaccinium pallidum