Vaccinium uliginosum L. (Ericaceae), four different morphs
from Finland relating to the size and shape of leaves (from the left: Nurmijärvi,
Rajamäki, 1988; Lohja, Kirkniemi, 1985; Lohja, Kirkniemi, 1985; Kauniainen,
Kasavuori, 2001).
– Image: Harri
Harmaja (scanned from dried specimens).
– The
leaf lengths are, respectively: 37, 29, 22, and 7 mm. The leaf characters were
constant within the respective individuals. The largest leaf
originates from a stand that comprised tall bushes, the stem thickness of the
latter even measuring 10 mm basally. The second leaf from the left represents an
average leaf of Finnish V. uliginosum.
The plant that
produced the smallest leaves is a dwarf itself, only measuring 8 cm in height,
and resembles the alpine-arctic V. gaultherioides Bigelow (= V. uliginosum ssp.
microphyllum Lange). It was found in
southernmost Finland in rather bare peat in an oligotrophic Pinus-Sphagnum
bog. In 2006, I found this kind of plant in another locality in South Finland (Lammi,
Untulanharju) in a peculiar ecological niche: a boulder bed,
facing the NE on the slope of the famous esker, that is an area of cold air
ventilation from the inside of the esker. Accompanying species include the
pronouncedly northern Festuca cf. vivipara and Polytrichum
hyperboreum.
The variability of V. uliginosum in Lithuania was
treated in the following contribution: Stancevičiene, E. 2002:
Metametric variability of Vaccinium uliginosum L.
– Bot.
Lithuanica 8: 145-151. Among other variability, Stancevičiene
found plants with roundish leaves and plants with small leaves (12.5-16.5 mm);
the latter plants she considered to belong to ssp. microphyllum. However,
it would appear that the leaves of the Lithuanian plants are too tall to belong
to that taxon.
Alsos, I. G., Engelskjøn, T.,
Gielly, L. Taberlet, P. & Brochmann C. (2005) treat the impact of ice
ages on circumpolar molecular diversity in V. uliginosum (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02621.x).
They do not approve V. gaultherioides at the species level.
Created September 20, 2004. Latest revision July 7, 2006.