Sargent, Charles S. 1889. Vaccinium hirsutum. Gard. & Forest. 2: 364, 365, fig. 119.
Ericaceae
Species Description - Plants usually in dense coloiiies, sometimes several meters in diameter, (0.3)0.5-1 m. high. Leaves deciduous, pale green to somewhat glaucous; the lower surface noni-glandular, glabrous; elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, usually apically acute, but sometimes rounded or subacuminate, 1.5-3 cm. wide, 3-5 cm. long; the margin entire. Corolla broadly urceolate to cylindro-campanulate, 5-7 mm. long, white or greenish-white, often tinged with pink. Fruit 7-10 (rarelv 12) mm. in diam., usually glaucous, but sometimes dull or even black, usually of excellent flavor.
Cyanococcus liparis Small, Man. SE. Fl. 1016, 1507. 1933.
Yaccinium liparumn Uphof, Mitt. Deuts. Dendr. Ges. 48: 23. 1936.
Cyanococcus subcordatus Small, Man. SE. Fl. 1016, 1507. 1933.
Yaccinium subcordatum Uphof, Mitt. Deuts. Dendr. Ges. 48: 21. 1936.
Cyanococcus tallapusae Coville ex Small, Man. SE. Fl. 1016, 1507. 1933.
Vacciniumt tallapusae Uphof, Mitt. Deuts. Dendr. Ges. 48: 19. 1936.
Tetraploid (2n = 48).
In a previous paper (Darrow, Camp, Fischer & Dermen 1944) the chromosome complement of V. tallapusae was reported, but no mention was made of V. alto-montanum. This was done pending work on certain other materials which had a bearing on the interpretation of V. alto-montarum. The material reported as tetraploid from Sugar Valley, Georgia, now seems to belong here, and somewhat aberrant material which we thought might possibly be alto-montanum has since proved to be the "alto-montanoid" phase of the hexaploid, V. con, stablaci. This has opened the way for a better understanding of the species.
I have been unable to locate authentic type material of V. alto-montanum, but the additional specimens cited by the author and a knowledge of the material from various areas, points to a reasonably aceurate application of the name to the species as here defined. It is apparent from his notes that Ashe attempted to make some differentiation between alto-montanum and the material we now know to be the "alto-montanoid" segregate phase of V, constablaei (this latter was referred to by Ashe as "V. pallidum"). It is also to be noted that the material in North Carolina seems to intergrade with Coville's material of Cyanococcus tallapusae, the type of which came from Tallapoosa, Georgia.
Cyanococcus liparis Small has been ineluded here solely on the basis of the type collection, which came from Bull Pasture Mountain, Virginia, and is in fruit. Small's description of the flower (so far as size is concerned) and a leaf size to 7 cm. (no leaf on the type is over 4.2 cm. long), as well as certain other characters ineluded in the original text, are erroneous and were drawn from other collections which included material of V. corymbosum and V. caesariense, none of which was accompanied by adequate field data such as habit and height of plant. This accounts for the aberrant characters listed, as well as a reported distribuLtion extending as far north as New Hampshire.
Cyanococcus subcordatus Small, the type collection of which came from near Knoxville, Tennessee, also seems to belong here. The type (Ruth 445, Herb. N. Y. Bot. Gard.) does have a few slightly cordate leaves, but most of them are rounded at the base. Another collection from the same locality (Ruth 448, U. S. Nat. Herb.) is quite similar, but none of the leaves seems to be at all cordate. These plants are coarse and appear to be what one would expect of the often basally rounded and broad-leafed biotype of V. vacillans-which is common in the C-uinberland Mts., and adjoining area-if it were to have produced a tetraploid. This material appears to stand about intermediate between the type of liparis and the median biotype of tallapusae, none of which has the narrowly elliptic leaves of much of the southern Blue Ridge material of alto-montanum, if interpreted in a strict sense.
After some years of field work in the Southern Appalachians, it is my opinion that V. alto-montanitm (as interpreted broadly in the present paper) does not constitute a completely continuous population, although additional work may indicate that its distribution in certain areas is more general than now supposed. However, on the basis of field observations, the species as here interpreted appears to be polytopic; that is, it appears to be made up of more or less regional (and sometimes even local) populations, each derived from a slightly different biotype of V. vaccillans. Most of these are plants with glabrous and entire leaves (see the description of the basic [torreyanum] phase of V. vacillans); however, occasional aberrant populations are found. As noted in previous paragrap5hs, coarser plants, growing to 1.5 m., with puberulent or even somewhat pubescent leaves, some of which are subserrate, are known from isolated stations in southern Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas. These individually different collections appear to be the homologs of the known segments of Y. alto-mamtanum and seem to have been derived from various biotypes of the western (missouriense) phase of V. vacillans. One such plant from Arkansas has been found to be tetraploid.
Additional work on the entire complex-especially westward-will probably indicate that most of the segments of the variable vacillans have given rise to local tetraploid derivatives, some of which, as is true of the known forms of altomontanum, may have achieved considerable populations through the normal processes of plant dispersal. In the event of such findings, it would seem only logical to include them in the tetraploid V. alto-montanum, the only change needed being a slight modification in the description of the species. However, some eaution must be used in extending the circumscription and recorded distribution limits of V. alto-montanum without further cytogenetic work, for the western part of the area under consideration possibly may contain coarse diploid plants which would be superficially similar, but derived by the back-crossing of the missouriense phase of V. vacillans with the highbush V. atrococcum.
V. alto-montanum hybridizes freely with V. simulatum where they meet. That it has not done so more often may possibly be explained by two factors: (1) V. alto-montanum usually occupies different habitats from those of V. simulatum; and (2) its apparently polytopic nature (i.e., the usually local distribution of its separately derived segments) has not afforded as many opportunities for hybridization as if it were a more continuous community which had achieved its distribution by migration from a single place of origin. Certain areas-as the "Pink Beds," Transylvania Co., North Carolina-appear to have a population derived from these two. This community, with its included variability, has been described as Vacciniumnn carotiniamnum Ashe. V. alto-montanum also has apparently hybridized with V. lamarckii in the region of Mountain Lake, Virginia.
United States of America North America|