About bog bilberries and a little about bilberries
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Bog bilberry
Bog bilberry, Bog blueberry Sinikas Vaccinum uliginosum
Summer has rushed on this year, and is almost a couple of weeks ahead of its schedule. At bog verges and in transition bogs, the bog bilberry habitats, the bluish, wax-coated berries ripen.
The bog bilberry shrubs can grow up to waist height, the leaves are obovate (reverse egg shape), blue-green and a little hairy on the underside. Bilberry stands reach barely to the knees and the leaves are light green.
The stems of the bog bilberry are round and slightly ribbed, coloured from violet to yellowish brown. The bilberry has green and when young, angular stems. Both are deciduous dwarf shrubs.
About the berries – bog bilberries are as round as bilberries, they are lighter and more „blue“ than bilberries and smear hands less on picking. They are quite valuable berries but compared to bilberries from a culinary point of view not as delicious. The taste is simply more watery, the fruit pulp pinkish in colour, contains abundantly Vitamin C and more than 6% sugars.
In a few individuals bog bilberry berries may cause an intoxication-like state – but in these days a sensitive person needs to observe the effects of all kinds of foods.
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