Vaccinium uliginosum subsp. occidentale

Western blueberry, Western Blueberry

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Western blueberry is a California native shrub found in northern coastal, Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Ranges, and Sierra Nevada mountains in bogs and wet meadows at elevations below 3,400 meters. Flowering from June to July, this plant produces small blue-black fruits with pale blue-white glaucous coating. Growing with erect or prostrate stems up to 6 decimeters tall, it forms distinctive low-spreading clusters in alpine and subalpine habitats. Its deciduous leaves are thick and elliptic to ovate, measuring 1 to 2 centimeters long with a glaucous appearance and subtle leaf veining. The blue-black fruits are less than 6 millimeters in diameter, with persistent triangular calyx lobes that remain attached after flowering.

Habitat: Bogs, wet meadows

Bloom period: Jun-Jul

Elevation: < 3400 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, NCoRH, CaR, SNH

California counties: Tulare, Fresno, Butte, Siskiyou, El Dorado, Shasta, Inyo, Mono, Mariposa, Sierra, Lassen, Plumas, Nevada, Tuolumne, Madera, Tehama, Placer, Calaveras, Humboldt, Alpine, Trinity

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.