Vaccinium cereum
Vaccinium cereum subsp. cheesemanii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Vaccinium
Species:
V. cereum
Binomial name
Vaccinium cereum
(L.f.) G.Forst. (1786)
Synonyms[1]
  • Andromeda cerea L.f. (1782)
  • Metagonia cerea (L.f.) Nutt. (1842)

Vaccinium cereum is a species of flowering plant in the heath family, Ericaceae. It is a shrub native to the Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, and Society Islands in the South Pacific.[1]

In the Marquesas Islands it inhabits dry and windswept mountaintops above 1,200 m, where it is a characteristic shrub in heathland growing up to one meter tall, together Metrosideros collina, Styphelia tameiameiae, and Bidens spp., and interspersed with grasses and ferns.[2] On Tahiti it grows on windswept razor-back ridges from 800 to 1400 meters elevation.[3]

Three subdivisions are accepted:[1]

  • Vaccinium cereum subsp. cereum – Society Islands (Tahiti) and Marquesas Islands
  • Vaccinium cereum subsp. cheesemanii Skottsb. – Cook Islands (Rarotonga)
  • Vaccinium cereum var. raiateense (J.W.Moore) M.L.Grant – Society Islands (Raiatea)

Vaccinium cereum is the type species of Vaccinium section Macropelma, but its phylogenetic relationships to other Vaccinium species isn't fully clear. It differs from the Hawaiian species of section Macropelma in having a pseudo-ten-locular ovary as well as a determinate floral axis with flowers in all of the leaf axils. It is similar overall to Vaccinium macgillivrayi from Vanuatu and New Caledonia, and may be more closely related to the Asiatic section Bracteata than to the Hawaiian species, and/or may be of hybrid origin.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Vaccinium cereum (L.f.) G.Forst. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  2. ↑ "Marquesas tropical moist forests". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
  3. ↑ S. P. Vander Kloet. (1996). Taxonomy of Vaccinium sect. Macropelma (Ericaceae). Systematic Botany, 21(3), 355–364. https://doi.org/10.2307/2419664
  4. ↑ Powell, E. A., & Kron, K. A. (2002). Hawaiian Blueberries and Their Relatives: A Phylogenetic Analysis of Vaccinium Sections Macropelma, Myrtillus, and Hemimyrtillus (Ericaceae). Systematic Botany, 27(4), 768–779. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3093922
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