Bog Bilberry/Bog Blueberry

Vaccinium uliginosum

Bog bilberry, also called alpine bilberry, is a low-growing deciduous shrub that may be as short as four inches high or as high as two and a half feet, but rarely above that. It has small, smooth, blue-green oval leaves and green stems. This differentiates it from its cousin bilberry species such as vaccinium myrtillus, which have green stems. Depending on climate, it is found from sea level (in arctic and sub-arctic regions) up to 11,000 feet (in contiguous United States mountain ranges and similar latitudes).

Bog bilberries can be eaten raw or cooked, and are often used to make pie or jelly, or in akutaq. They are also dried to make pemmican. The leaves may be used medicinally or for tea.

Indigenous Alaskan Names:
asiavik [Inupiaq]
qiuq, curaq [Yup’ik]
cuawak [Alutiiq]
ugiidgin [Unangam Tunuu (Aleut)]
kanat’a [Tlingit]
nilyagh [Deg Xinag Athabaskan]
gega, gegashla [Dena’ina Athabaskan]
gege, nelyaage [Koyukon Athabaskan]
gigi gheli [Ahtna Athabaskan]

Works Cited:
Wikipedia
Alaska Plant Profiles

Image Credits
Images have been cropped and resized

Ripe berries
🅭2006 David Gaya, CC BY-SA 2.5
Ripening and ripe berries
🅭2016 Kristof Zyskowski & Yulia Bereshpolova, CC BY-SA 2.0
Flowers in bloom
🅭2007 Kim Hansen, CC BY-SA 3.0
Bog bilberry plants in a tundra setting
🅭2020 Mike Pennington, CC BY-SA 2.0