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Vaccinium bracteatum
Also called Asiatic Bilberry, Oriental Blueberry, Sea Blueberry
Sea bilberry is a small tree or large shrub from East and Southeast Asia, valued for its dark purple edible berries and leaves that yield a dye. It grows best in acidic, well-drained soil in a sunny to lightly shaded spot.
Vaccinium bracteatum, the sea bilberry or Asiatic bilberry, is a species of Vaccinium native to Asia.
It is native to Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Korea, southeast and south-central China, Hainan, Taiwan, mainland Southeast Asia, Java, and Sumatra.
It is in semi-cultivation in China. Local people collect and consume the fruit. Additionally, a bluish-violet dye is extracted from the leaves, being used as a hair dye, for coloring vinegar, and in cooking. The dye turns black when cooked with rice, providing culinary interest.
Lowbush blueberry · Farkleberry · Northern blueberry · New Jersey blueberry · Dwarf bilberry · Highbush blueberry · Creeping blueberry · Azorean Bilberry · Darrow's blueberry · Elliott's blueberry · Southern mountain cranberry · Andean blueberry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vaccinium bracteatum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
