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Plant · P-440
Bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Bilberry is a low, suckering shrub of acid heaths and cool mountain woodland, spreading by rhizome into a knee-high mat. Its small dark berries are eaten raw, cooked, dried, or turned into jam and a leaf tea, though grouse, bears, foxes and squirrels usually get to them first. It needs acid, lime-free ground and goes chlorotic the moment lime turns up nearby - soil chemistry decides whether it grows here far more than sun or water do.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–7
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 4.5–6
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 6–8 in
- Mature spread
- 10–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 6–10 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Barren Strawberry
Waldsteinia fragarioides
Barren Strawberry is a low woodland groundcover with strawberry-like leaves and yellow spring flowers, but despite the name and the leaf…
Groundcover · USDA 4–7
Beach Strawberry
Fragaria chiloensis
Beach strawberry is a low, evergreen, mat-forming strawberry native to Pacific coast dunes and bluffs from Alaska south through California to…
Groundcover · USDA 4–10
Black Medick
Medicago lupulina
Black Medick is a low, sprawling nitrogen-fixing clover relative that forms a mowable mat through fall, winter and spring before dying back…
Groundcover · USDA 3–9
Carpet Bugle
Ajuga reptans
Carpet Bugle forms a fast, dense, rooting mat that thrives in dry shade - the hardest niche on most properties to fill, since dry ground…
Groundcover · USDA 3–10
Catmint
Nepeta racemosa
Catmint blooms from spring through the end of summer if the spent flower spikes are sheared after each flush, holding nectar for pollinators…
Groundcover · USDA 5–9
Cloudberry
Rubus chamaemorus
Cloudberry is a dwarf bramble of Arctic and boreal peat bogs and tundra, spreading by rhizome into low mats. It needs a male and a female…
Groundcover · USDA 2–4
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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