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Vaccinium meridionale
Also called Colombian Blueberry, Jamaican Bilberry, Jamaica Billberry
Vaccinium meridionale, the Andean blueberry (agraz), is a shrub or small tree from the mountains of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, grown for its acidic, dark red berries. It is typically tended lightly, close to wild conditions, and propagated from seed, cuttings or layering.
Vaccinium meridionale, agraz or Andean blueberry, is a South American species in the section Pyxothamnus of the genus Vaccinium, part of the heath and heather family.
It is planted in plots at distances of 3 by 2 metres (10 ft × 6+1⁄2 ft), without modifying its habitat since it is a wild species. The best propagation is obtained with seedlings with root buds from old lianas. As natural habitats disappear, there is a growing trend of cultivating wild vegetal species in seed banks.
When propagation is done using seeds, the seedlings can be transplanted after a year and a half; When stakes are used, the transplanting can be done at six months by the rooting of branches, or layering. The productive life of the plants can extend to up to eight decades, with two fruit harvests per year.
It is found in the mountains of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, and may have been introduced to Jamaica. Like so‑called wild blueberries in North America, it is artisanally tended in a manner that differs little from wild growing conditions, with few inputs. Its fruit is gathered in the wild and widely sold in local health food markets and grocery stores.
Lowbush blueberry · Farkleberry · Northern blueberry · Sea bilberry · New Jersey blueberry · Dwarf bilberry · Highbush blueberry · Creeping blueberry · Azorean Bilberry · Darrow's blueberry · Elliott's blueberry · Southern mountain cranberry
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vaccinium meridionale 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.
