northern Europe and North America.
Blueberry Blueberries are the small fruits of a
bushy North American species of the genus
Vaccinium, which ranges from the tropics to
the arctic. V. angustifolium and corymbosum
are weedy pioneers in burned fields, and their
fruits were gathered from the wild until the
1920s, when the first selected “highbush”
(corymbosum) plants were developed in New
Jersey. The bilberry, V. myrtillus, is a
European relative, and the rabbit-eye
blueberry, V. ashei, a similar but less flavorful
native of the southern United States. The
huckleberry, various species of Vaccinium,
has a few large hard seeds, while blueberries
have many small ones.
Blueberries have a distinctive, spicy aroma
apparently due to several terpenes, and are
rich in phenolic antioxidants and in
anthocyanin pigments, especially in the skin.
These small berries freeze well, and retain