| + | '''''Vaccinium stamineum''''', commonly known as '''deerberry''', '''squaw huckleberry''' or '''gooseberry''', is a flowering shrub in the [[Ericaceae|heath family]]. The plant is native to eastern [[North America]] from [[Ontario]] in the north, south to [[Florida]] and west to [[Texas]]. Its white, bell-shaped flowers consisting of 5 spreading petals emerge from April through June, and on rare occasions from October through November. The fruit is an edible pubescent [[berry]]. The species is highly variable and a number of varieties have been named. It is typically found in rocky or sandy soil in [[xeric]] woodlands.<ref name=radford>{{citation| last=Radford| first=Albert E.; Ahles, Harry E.; Bell, C. Ritchie| title=Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas| publisher=University of North Carolina Press| year=1964| location=Chapel Hill| page=814| isbn=0-8078-1087-8}}</ref> |
| Vaccinium stamineum, Linn. Deerberry. Squaw Huckleberry. A divergently branched shrub, 2-5 ft. high, with pubescent twigs, not white-speckled: lvs. 1-4 in. long, oval to obovate-oblong or elliptical, acute, entire, pale, glaucous and pubescent beneath: fls. very numerous in large leafy-bracted racemes, showy, jointed with the slender spreading or pendulous pedicels; calyx glabrous; corolla pure white, rarely purple-tinged, open-campanulate, 5-cleft, anthers and style exserted: fr. large, 3/8 – 1/2 in. long, globose or pyriform, greenish or yellowish, glaucous, few-seeded, almost or quite inedible. Dry woods and thickets, E. N. Amer.—Corolla peculiar in not being closed in the bud. | | Vaccinium stamineum, Linn. Deerberry. Squaw Huckleberry. A divergently branched shrub, 2-5 ft. high, with pubescent twigs, not white-speckled: lvs. 1-4 in. long, oval to obovate-oblong or elliptical, acute, entire, pale, glaucous and pubescent beneath: fls. very numerous in large leafy-bracted racemes, showy, jointed with the slender spreading or pendulous pedicels; calyx glabrous; corolla pure white, rarely purple-tinged, open-campanulate, 5-cleft, anthers and style exserted: fr. large, 3/8 – 1/2 in. long, globose or pyriform, greenish or yellowish, glaucous, few-seeded, almost or quite inedible. Dry woods and thickets, E. N. Amer.—Corolla peculiar in not being closed in the bud. |