The Story of Blueberry

Highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum), lowbush (V. angustifolium), and rabbiteye (V. ashei) are the commercial blueberry types within the genus.

How it was found

Kew prints the native range of Vaccinium as cosmopolitan. The native list is worldwide (temperate and tropical mountains on many continents); Kew also prints doubtfully present in Algeria and Fiji, and introduced into South Georgia.

The cultivated highbush blueberry is a 20th-century crop. In 1911, USDA botanist Frederick Coville made his first successful crosses between two wild blueberries selected from a pasture in Greenfield, New Hampshire, and Elizabeth White of Whitesbog, New Jersey, gathered superior wild bushes for his breeding work. The first commercial crop of cultivated highbush blueberries was harvested in 1916 (USDA).

With improved low-chill cultivars from the 1970s through the 1990s, blueberry production expanded to the southern United States and then California. Breeders in the southeastern United States developed “low chill” southern highbush cultivars by crossing northern highbush species with native Florida species.

How people used it

UC California Agriculture (Jimenez et al. 2005): blueberry is treated as a fruit crop (fresh and processed); family Ericaceae.

Timeline

1. 1753

   Linnaeus names the genus

   Kew accepts Vaccinium L., first published in Species Plantarum: 349 (1753). Its native range is cosmopolitan, and Kew lists 493 accepted species.

   Kew POWO — Vaccinium L.

2. Commercial types

   Highbush, lowbush, rabbiteye

   UC California Agriculture: highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) and low-bush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) are important commercial types and are native to the northeastern United States. Rabbiteye blueberries (Vaccinium ashei) are also produced commercially and are native to the southeastern United States.

   UC California Agriculture (Jimenez et al., 2005)

3. 1970s through the 1990s

   Low-chill types open the South and California

   UC California Agriculture: with the development of improved low-chill cultivars from the 1970s through the 1990s, blueberry production expanded to the southern United States and then California. Breeders in the southeastern United States developed “low chill” southern highbush cultivars by crossing northern highbush species with native Florida species.

   UC California Agriculture (Jimenez et al., 2005)

4. 2003 / California harvest window (as of 2005)

   A new California specialty crop

   UC California Agriculture: in 2003 North American blueberry acreage exceeded 65,000 acres (North American Blueberry Council 2004, as cited). California harvest typically begins in early May and lasts almost 8 weeks. California acreage in that table: 1,300 acres (2003 estimate).

   UC California Agriculture (Jimenez et al., 2005)

Cool to know

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki.