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Vaccinium vitis-idaea
Also called Lingonberry, Mountain Cranberry, Foxberry, Lingberry, Lingen, Lingenberry, Northern Mountain Cranberry
Cowberry, also called lingonberry, is a small evergreen shrub native to boreal forests and Arctic tundra across the Northern Hemisphere. It spreads by underground stems into dense colonies and is grown for its tart red berries, which need cool conditions and an acidic, moist soil.
Vaccinium vitis-idaea is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family, Ericaceae. It is known colloquially as the lingonberry, partridgeberry, foxberry, mountain cranberry, or cowberry. It is native to the boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
The edible berries are commercially cultivated in the United States and the Netherlands. They are also picked in the wild and used in various cuisines.
Lingonberry has been commercially cultivated in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Poland, the United States (including the Pacific Northwest) and Latvia since the 1960s.
Some cultivars are grown for their ornamental rather than culinary value. In the United Kingdom, the Koralle Group has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including Eurasia and North America.
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 vitis-idaea 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.
