The Lowbush blueberry industry in Eastern Canada

Abstract

A great number of morphologically distinctive blueberry populations, representing many species and suggesting extensive hybridization (16), occur throughout North America. The east Canadian population consists essentially of four species (25, 2, 3). Oddly enough, although these differ in form as described below, the fruits are quite similar in size, flavor and extent of waxy bloom. They have been harvested from the wild for generations and, together, with venison, were a major component of the Indian's pemmican. Vaccinium corymbosum L., the highbusb blueberry, occurs in swamps and lake-marginal regions throughout southwestern NovaScotia. The native population is too limited to be of commercial importance, but cultivars selected in the United States have been propagated and planted in increasing numbers in this area. A diminutive species, Vaccinium boreale Hall & Aalders, occurs in exposed northern regions of Cape Breton Island and in Newfoundland (25). It is not economically important. The two species of lowbush blueberries that constitute the bulk of the native crop occur together in most blueberry fields. The velvet-leaf blueberry, Vaccin.ium myrtilloides Michx., predominates in fields newly developed from woodlots. The common lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium Ait., dominates in fields developed from abandoned hay fields (24), and the produce from this constitutes more than three-quarters of all lowbush blueberry production. For many years, attempts have been made to cultivate blueberries. This has resulted,