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BILBERRY

BILBERRY (N. England), BLAEBERRY (Scotland), WHORTLEBERRY (S. England), HUCKLEBERRY (Bedfordshire Greensand), WHINBERRY (or WIMBERRY)

Vaccinium myrtillus

Heather Family [Ericaceae]  

Flowers:
month8apr month8april month8May month8jun month8june

Berries: berryZpossible        berryZbluish / berryZblack  (edible)
berry8Jul berry8July berry8Aug berry8Sep berry8Sept

category
category8Shrubs
category
category8Deciduous
category
category8Broadleaf
status
statusZnative
flower
flower8red
morph
morph8actino
petals
petalsZ1
type
typeZbell
stem
stem8angular  stem8triangular
stem
stem8winged

1st May 2009, Muncaster Fell, Eskdale Valley, Cumbria. Photo: © RWD
A bilberry covered upland hillside.


16th April 2008, Maiden Castle, Sandstone Trail, Cheshire. Photo: © RWD


23rd April 2009, Marsden Clough, Peak District. Photo: © RWD
Bilberry flowers in abundance.


16th April 2008, Maiden Castle, Sandstone Trail, Cheshire. Photo: © RWD


18th April 2007, Taxal Hill, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire. Photo: © RWD
Flowers hang downwards from bent-over stalks.


14th April 2014, moors, Hayfield, Dark Peaks. Photo: © RWD
The flowers before they have opened: a cup-shaped green to reddish-purple sepal clasps the un-opened flower like an acorn.


14th April 2014, moors, Hayfield, Dark Peaks. Photo: © RWD
The single petal is cut right near the end ready to form 5 petals when they curl backwards.


23rd April 2009, Marsden Clough, Peak District. Photo: © RWD
Flower buds longish and pointed before opening into a wider rosy-red bell with just a single opening with five curled-over extremely short 'petals'. Upper part has a bloomy sheen, first an eerie green, becoming purplish (top left eerie green, top right purplish).


16th April 2008, Maiden Castle, Sandstone Trail, Cheshire. Photo: © RWD
The stems have frequent buds.


6th May 2018, below Blackstone Edge, Pennines. Photo: © RWD
A clean view - held aloft and looking up. Leaf veins networked and translucent against the light (best seen in lower left leaf). Pinkish oval bracts at every stem junction.


16th April 2008, Maiden Castle, Sandstone Trail, Cheshire. Photo: © RWD
The stems are like engineers fluted HSS drill bits: twisted and deeply grooved.


8th June 2005, Pennine Way, Marsden Moor, Derbyshire. Photo: © RWD
Well-formed hanging flowers.


19th April 2011, Denshaw, Greater M/cr. Photo: © RWD
Bell-shaped flower in close-up. Style protruding rudely bearing a discoidal purple(ish) stigma.


14th April 2014, moors, Hayfield, Dark Peaks. Photo: © RWD
Seldom seen.


11th May 2010, Entwistle, Lancashire. Photo: © RWD
The bell-shaped flower has been partially eaten revealing the normally hidden inner parts of the flower. Obverse of the leaves showing.


14th April 2014, moors, Hayfield, Dark Peaks. Photo: © RWD
Your Author vandalised another flower in the interests of science. The filaments are white, flattish and in a circle. An orange to yellow anther attaches to the end of each filament.


13th April 2017, under Froggatt Edge, Peak Dist, Derbys. Photo: © RWD
Most of the cowl-shaped petal has been removed, only a little at the top remains. The cup-shaped green sepal is now showing from inside the flower (bottom)
The filaments are white and flattish arranged in a circle around the ovary. 11 are visible here. Atop them are the in-rolled yellow anthers looking like double-barrelled shotgun barrels. They each have 2 long thin 'tails'. In the centre is the style sitting atop the big, fat, pale-green ovary (which will become the fruit) around which the flattened filaments curve.


3rd Aug 2008, Pots and Pans, Greenfield, Greater Manchester. Photo: © RWD
The leaves have many small teeth. The stems tri-angular.


3rd Aug 2008, Pots and Pans, Greenfield, Greater Manchester. Photo: © RWD
Shaped a bit like the flowers before them, the berries have a bluish-white bloom, a bit like the Sloes of Blackthorn, but much softer and jucier (rather than hard and totally inedible).


28th July 2017, Cairngorms, Scotland Photo: © Kenneth Sutherland
The ripe berry at first has a dimple at the extreme end, but a circular patch of skin later comes off to reveal the circular pit as seen below.


3rd Aug 2008, Pots and Pans, Greenfield, Greater Manchester. Photo: © RWD
And are slightly hollow. The central paler area is where the style was when it was a flower.


Hybridizes with : Cowberry, the hybrid being called Hybrid Bilbery or (Vaccinium × intermedium). The hybrid has darker leaves and is evergreen, whereas Bilberry itself is deciduous. It is very rare and seems to now only grow in the Cannock Chase area.

Some similarities to : Blueberry, its larger-berried North American counterpart that was grown commercially in the south of Britain.

Slight resemblance to : Yew 'Berries'. The ripe black bilberries themselves look similar in shape, but not in colour, to the red arils of Yew Trees.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature :

Not to be confused with Bog Bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) which is in the same family, but is a rare [R] found scattered but locally on damp moors. The leaves are not slightly shiny as Bilberry leaves are; instead they are a darker green and without teeth. Moreover the stems do not have two very deep grooves spiralling slowly but irregularly around the stem as does Bilberry, but rather they are totally round.

Northerners call them Bilberries and since they grow mainly in the North of Britain their many alternative names forged further south should be put aside, to be forgotten, for they only cause confusion; Bilberries they should be called.

The upper stems are green and triangular in cross-section, often twisted and knotted. A deciduous low sub-shrub that grows in acid soils, often mixed in with heather on moorland and heathland. The flowers are bell-shaped and reddish with a darker purplish hint, always hanging down facing the ground. Leaves mid-green at first turn yellow, then red in autumn.

Since 2009, Bilberry in the UK has been succumbing to a fungal infection, Bilberry Blight, which turns the affected part of the plant brownish, so as to appear dead. It started in the far south of England, but is spreading, and is now affecting an area of moorland called The Roaches in the millstone grit area of the Pennines. Attempts are being made to stop it spreading.

The berries are blue-black, with a white waxy bloom that wipes off with fingers, and are usually half-hidden beneath the leaves. Delectably edible, and delicious when ripe. Bilberry pies are scrumptious. The fact that it has so many synonyms testifies to the fact that it is widespread and enjoyed by many. Moorland grouse eat the berries, turning their faeces blue, often leaving an intriguing blue splodge on millstone grit rocks. Bilberries have been demonstrated to be good for improving vision, especially night-vision. It has been proposed that Bilberry achieves this by increasing blood flow in the capillaries of the retina.

Bilberry contains at least 15 different anthocyanins, several flavonoids including Quercitrin, IsoQuercitrin, Hyperoside and Astragalin together with Catechol tannins, Ursolic Acid, Caffeic Acid, Chlorogenic Acid. The anthocyanins are based upon Malvidin, Cyanidin and Delphinidin. The tannins amount to 1.5%.

The anthocyanins are useful in improving eyesight and night-vision and in delaying the onset of cataracts and other eye disorders especially AMD (age-related macular degeneration) which afflicts people over the age of 55 causing blindness starting from the central part of the vision first (unlike tunnel vision where the retina starts degrading around the periphery). The anthocyanins help to regenerate rhodopsin, a purple dye involved in night vision.

The leaves of Bilberry are toxic and have been used to treat diarrhoea and as relief for nausea and indigestion. As well as containing myrtillin and tannins they contain high levels of chromium. Because of their toxicity the medicinal use of the leaves is discouraged.


USE BY BUTTERFLIES
LAYS EGGS ON CATERPILLAR CHRYSALIS BUTTERFLY
Green Hairsteak


ANTHOCYANIDINS

Anthocyanidins are highly coloured pigments which have anti-oxidant properties. Notice the positive charge on the oxygen atom in all of them. The glycosides of anthocyanidins are called anthocyanins, which are shown in the box below.

Cyanidin is an reddish-yellow pigment and anthocyanidin found not only in Bilberry fruits, but also in blackberries, blueberries, cherries, cranberries, elderberries, hawthorn berries, loganberries, and raspberry. As with most cyanidins, the colour is dependent upon the pH, being red at pH less than 3, violet at neutral acidities (pH 7-8), and blue at pH greater than 11.

Delphinidin imparts a shade of blue to flowers of Violas and Delphiniums where it is in an alkaline environment; in an acid environment it becomes red. One of the glycosides of Delphinidin, Delphinidin-3-O-glucoside (not shown) is an anthocyanin found in Blackcurrants (examples of anthocyanins found in Bilberry are shown in the box below).

Malvidin is the di-methylated version of Delphinidin, and is a blue pigment found in bilberries and in Primulas. Malvidin is also found in red wine, where it is in an acid environment and therefore red. In basic conditions it exhibits a blue colour. It also contains other anthocyanidins, Pelargonidin and Petunidin.

In total, the fruits contain about 0.5% anthocyanidins. High doses of anthocyanidins should be avoided as they can cause haemorrhagic disorders which is especially significant in those taking anti-coagulant drugs such as Warfarin.

FLAVONOL GLYCOSIDES

Hyperoside is one of the glycosides of the anthocyanin Cyanidin, above. It is the 3-O-galactoside of Quercetin and is found in bilberries, Primulas, St John's Wort, Woundworts and other plants of Genus Stachys.

Myrtillin is an anthocyanin and one of the glycosides of the anthocyanidin Delphinidine, above. It is found in Blackcurrant, the leaves of Blueberry and Bilberry, several plants of the Myrtaceae Family. It is a dark-red colour and is responsible for the dark-redness of the fruits of the Sumach Trees. It may have uses in stabilising the blood-sugar level of those suffering from Glycaemia and Diabetes, where it saves the use of insulin which can debilitate some people. Myrtillin could also be described as a methoxylated glucoside of Gallic Acid.


  Vaccinium myrtillus  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Ericaceae  

Distribution
family8heather family8ericaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8vaccinium
Vaccinium
(Bilberries)

BILBERRY

BILBERRY (N. England), BLAEBERRY (Scotland), WHORTLEBERRY (S. England), HUCKLEBERRY (Bedfordshire Greensand), WHINBERRY (or WIMBERRY)

Vaccinium myrtillus

Heather Family [Ericaceae]  

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