Sargent, Charles S. 1889. Vaccinium hirsutum. Gard. & Forest. 2: 364, 365, fig. 119.
Ericaceae
Species Description - Plants in extensive colonies, 0.15-0.4 m high. Leaves coriaceous, evergreen, often markedly glaucous (notably so when young); the lower suface non-glandular, glabrous, or sometimes with an obscure puberulence, particularly along the midvein; narrowly elliptic to spatulate, 0.3-0.5 cm. wide, 0.8-1.5 cm. long; the margin entire. Corolla urceolate, 5-6 mm. long, pink to red. Fruit blue, 4-6 mm. in diam., of only fair flavor.
Vaccinum myrsinites var. glaucum A. Gray, Syn. Fl. N. A. 2(1): 21. 1878.
Diplod (2n=24).
The hybrids of V. darrowi with caesariense and elliottii will be discussed under those species, and the hybrids with atrococcum will be mentioned under fuscatum. Hybrids are also known between darrowi and tenellum under natural conditions. The F1 progeny of controlled crossings between various plants of these two indi- cate that neither species is genetically pure and that there has beein a mutual exehange of genes in the past. It is suspected that the original leaf-form of darrowi was inarrowly elliptic and that of tenellum spatulate, as found in the majority of the plants of these species today. This is the only diploid evergreen species of blueberry (subgenus Cyanococcus) in North America; when the leaves are evergreen or even tardily deciduous in any other species, the character appar- ently can be traced back to V. darrowi, at times by devious routes. Under pot culture in the greenhouse, the plants of V. darrowi often become lax and droop over the sides of the container, forming atypical but interesting specimens.
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