Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). “Pinch the maids as blue as
Billberry,” Shakespeare wrote in The Merry of Windsor. Billberries, or
whortleberries, or blueberries, or whinberries, as they are variously
called, are closely to the blueberry, being of the same genus. The main
difference between the two is that the bilberry is a little plant no more
than 18 inches tall and usually produces berries singly and not in
clusters as cultivated blueberries do. While the bilberry is native to
England, there are similar species found in the eastern and northern
United States (Vaccinium pennsylvanicum, and the lowbush blueberry, for
one example). Cultivation is exactly the same as for blueberries. In
America, incidentally, “bilberry” was never much used as a name for wild
blueberries and “whortleberry” was more often applied to the wild
huckleberry. In Britain “bilberry” is used to describe several species of
blueberries, including V. uliginosum, the bog whortleberry or great
bilberry. Britons have long gone “a bilberrying” and enjoyed “whorts” or
berries in pies, preserves, or eating fresh with cream, but the little
plant is much scarcer today than it was in the past. Hard to domesticate,
it will only thrive if you provide it with conditions similar to the acid
peat soil of the woodland where it lives, the plant tolerating lime even
less than other blueberries. Since the plants are partially self-sterile
at least two must be planted to ensure cross-pollination.
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