Sargent, Charles S. 1889. Vaccinium hirsutum. Gard. & Forest. 2: 364, 365, fig. 119.
Ericaceae
Species Description - Plants variable in all parts, crown-forming, the clump with few or many stems, or rarely a solitary stem in very old plants, or often suckering to form colonies several meters in diameter, (0.5)1-5 (or even nearly 8) m. high. Leaves decidu- ous, glaucous, often subglaucous, or sometimes pale and non-glaucous; the lower surface non-glandular, glabrous, or with a line of pubeseence on the midvein; narrowly elliptic to broadly ovate-acuminate, 2-4 cm. wide, 4-7 cm. long; the margin serrate to entire. Corolla cylindro-campanulate, 6-8 mm. long, white to greenish-tinted or pink-tinted. Fruit glaucous to subglaucous, rarely dark, 7-12 mnm. in diameter, often of excellent flavor.
This highly variable hexaploid population is allopolyploid, having been de- rived from combinations between V. simulattm and V. alto-moiBtanurm, this accounting for the wide range in its morphological characters; it is an excellent example of the typical segregative alloploidion. Apparently only several small twigs of this were collected by Gray (the scant material was divided with Torrey), and it is interesting to note that these are from the "simulatoid" portion of the population, rather than from the "alto-montanoid" phase, which he stressed in his description.
As in other complexes of this type, local populations have sometimes been buLilt up around one set of characters, while in others somewhat different phases may be dominant. For example: the "simulatoid'' phase is common along the crest of the mountains and especially the contiguous upper slopes ih the region of Gregory Bald and Thunderhead in the Great Smoky Mountains. On Mt. LeConte, the "alto-montanoid" phase dominates on some of the exposed and storm-swept ridges, whereas the "simulatoid" phase usually is the only one found in the tangled ericaceous "slicks." The same holds true on such mountains as Roan and Grandfather, and is clearly the result of selection from among the avail- able intraspecific segregates. Where some area has recently been burned-over, almost the entire set of forms in the complex may be present. In one such area on Gralndfather Mountain, a young forest mixed with various of the high-growing Ericaceae is starting to regenerate, and here the more extreme "alto-montanoid" forms already are beginning to be rare, being found mostly on the crest of the mountain among the rocks and on occasionlal, open, rocky outcrops along the spurs from the main peak, or in the few remaining open places on the slopes (figs. 10, 11, 12). Obviously, it will sometimes be difficult to distinguish between the extreme segregate phases of the hexaploid V. constablaei population and the two tetraploids, alto-montanum and simunatum, which have taken part in its production. In such cases an examination of the local population in the field is likely to yield more accurate results than to attempt the identification of a few of its individuals in the herbarium. A particular community of plants-described as V. carolinianutm Ashe, and known from the "Pink Beds," Transylvania; Co., North Carolina-miiay belong here; see below the discussion under V. alto-mon- tanuim, footnote 50.
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