Lingonberry in Polissia
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
The lingonberry is a low evergreen dwarf shrub with dense, glossy leaves rolled at the edges; underneath, the leaves are pale with dark dots. The bell-shaped flowers are white or pale pink, gathered in clusters. The berries are bright red and sour with a bitter note.
The lingonberry grows in fairly dry pine and mixed forests on sand, on the edges of bogs and in heather pine forests. In Polissia it occurs wherever there are old pine forests, from the Shatsk Lakeland to Chernihiv region.
The berries ripen at the end of summer. Thanks to their natural preservatives they have long been soaked in water for the winter. Lingonberry leaves are used in folk medicine, but only after consulting a doctor.
The lingonberry is easy to confuse with bearberry, which grows in the same pine forests: bearberry leaves have no dots underneath, and its berries are mealy and tasteless. Pick the berries by hand and do not pull the plants out by the roots.
When to see: berries in August–September; flowers in May–June
Where it was seen in Polissia
Observations from the open scientific database GBIF since 1990.
More in “Plants”
Mezereon
A forest shrub that blooms pink before its leaves appear; its red berries are highly poisonous.
Cranberry
A bog berry of Polissia with thin creeping stems that ripens in autumn and gets sweeter after the first frosts.
Bilberry
Polissia's most widespread forest berry, forming continuous carpets under the pines.
Bog bilberry
A bog berry similar to the bilberry but with white flesh; it grows on Polissia's bogs next to marsh Labrador tea.