Darrow's blueberry

Photo: Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 7 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

A true Florida native, found nearly statewide in flatwoods and pine forest. Sweet, juicy berries good for fresh eating — and hybridizes with V. ashei, giving it a role in southern blueberry breeding programs; some named edible cultivars exist.

Hardiness

Zone 7–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late spring

Mature size

Low, 0.6–0.9 m (2–3 ft) tall and wide, evergreen

Light

Full sun to part shade

Soil pH

4.5–6.0 (strongly to mildly acid) — dry to seasonally wet sandy soil

Environment

Subtropical, coastal plain

Native range

Nearly throughout Florida, absent from some southeastern and northeastern counties.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

Slow

Spacing

90 cm (35 in) apart — about 1.2 per m² (1.1 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Small evergreen leaves 1–2 cm long, elliptic and blunt-tipped, notably blue-glaucous — the waxy bloom is the species' ornamental point and the trait it passes to southern highbush hybrids.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous, almost entirely in the top 30–40 cm, and unusual in having few or no root hairs — the plant relies on ericoid mycorrhizal fungi for most of its water and nutrient uptake instead. Two practical consequences: it dries out fast and wants steady moisture, and it resents cultivation around the base, so mulch rather than hoe.

Fruit description

Small blue-black berry 5–8 mm across with a heavy pale bloom, borne in loose clusters and ripening in late spring — early for a blueberry, which is much of its breeding value. Sweet and mild with a slight aromatic edge, and showy against the blue-glaucous evergreen foliage.

Propagation

Seed (sown late winter in lime-free mix), half-ripe cuttings with a heel in August, layering, or division of suckers — propagation is slow and difficult.

Pollination

The flowers hold their pollen in tubes that open by pores at the tip, so it is shaken out by bees that vibrate the anthers — bumblebees and solitary bees do this, honeybees largely cannot. Measured: partial to complete self-incompatibility. Greenhouse trials free of pollinators set fruit on up to 20% of self-pollinated flowers against about 70% crossed, and selfing depressed every fertility measure. Plant two clones.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.