Ayosip

Sub Shrub Height: .3 - 2m Leaves: Alternate, simple, pinnately-veined, and with short pubescent petioles. Leaf blade are elliptic to lanceolate, bases are tapering (cuneate), the apex is pointed (acute), and margins are entire and hairy. Young leaves are reddish-bronze as they expand, while mature leaves are dark green above, usually 2–4 cm long by about 1–1.5 cm wide, and short pubescent; the lower surface is downy pubescent, either persistently so, or becoming glabrous except along the veins. Leaves turn reddish-orange to dark -purple in autumn. Flowers: Bisexual, in tight terminal inflorescences (racemes), with several flowers on short pedicels, which elongate as the flower matures. The green calyx has 5 triangular lobes; the corolla is white to tinged with pink, especially when young, 3–5 mm long, and urn-shaped (urceolate), with 5 short reflexed corolla lobes at the tip. The 10 stamens have filaments that are usually hairy and anthers that end in elongate tubular pores; the single pistil has an inferior ovary, a long slender style surrounded at the base by a nectar disk, and a small capitate stigma. The nectar of velvetleaf blueberries reportedly has a higher sucrose content than nectar of lowbush blueberries (Tirmentein 1990). As in lowbush blueberry, pollination of velvetleaf blueberry is primarily by bees (melittophily), which use buzz pollination to effectively pollinate the flowers (Buchmann 1983). However, andrenid bees (Andrena spp.) are the primary pollinator, as they are better able to manipulate the small corolla than bumblebees, who also visit this blueberry (Vander Kloet and Hall 1981). Honeybees and other smaller bees do not sonicate, so cannot effectively pollinate blueberry flowers. Flowers bloom in mid to late spring. Fruits: In clusters of few to several globose dark blue berries, 6–10 mm in diameter, usually with a pale glaucous bloom that rubs off easily. The persistent calyx lobes form a short 5-pointed crown at the top of each berry. Technically, the fruit is a false berry, since the ovary is inferior and adnate to the hypanthium tube; true berries are derived from superior ovaries, with only the ovary developing into a fleshy berry. Velvetleaf blueberries are edible, with sweet flesh and about 10–40 small seeds; the berries may be used in similar ways to those of lowbush blueberries. Fruits mature in late summer to fall and are dispersed primarily by mammals and birds (endozoochory).