Vaccinium arctostaphylos Vaccinium myrtillus L. Vaccinium oxycoccus L. Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. ERICACEAE Rainer W. Bussmann, Ketevan Batsatsashvili, Zaal Kikvidze, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Manana Khutsishvili, Inesa Maisaia, Shalva Sikharulidze, and David Tchelidze Synonyms Vaccinium myrtillus L.: Vaccinium myrtillus subsp. oreophilum (Rydb.) Á. Löve, D. Löve & B.M. Kapoor; Vaccinium myrtillus var. oreophilum (Rydb.) Dorn; Vaccinium oreophilum Rydb. Vaccinium oxycoccos L.: Oxycoccus palustris Pers.; Oxycoccus quadripetalus Gilib.; Oxycoccus vulgaris Hill Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.: Rhodococcum vitis-idaea Avrorin; Vaccinium jesoense Miq. R. W. Bussmann (*) · N. Y. Paniagua-Zambrana Department of Ethnobotany, Institute of Botany and Bakuriani Alpine Botanical Garden, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia Saving Knowledge, La Paz, Bolivia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] K. Batsatsashvili · M. Khutsishvili · I. Maisaia · S. Sikharulidze · D. Tchelidze Institute of Botany and Bakuriani Alpine Botanical Garden, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; mananakhuts@yahoo. com; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Z. Kikvidze 4-D Research Institute, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1 K. Batsatsashvili et al. (eds.), Ethnobotany of the Mountain Regions of Far Eastern Europe, Ethnobotany of Mountain Regions, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77088-8_138-2 2 R. W. Bussmann et al. Local Names Vaccinium arctostaphylos: Azeri: Черника кавказская (tsernika kabkasskaja), гара шаrгалы (gara sharralei); Armenian: арчвохкузак (artsochkyzak); Georgian: მაღალი მოცვი (maghali motsvi), კავკასიური მოცვი (k’avk’asiuri motsvi); Chanetian: ანცერა (antsera), ცანაკო (tsanak’o); Mthiuletian: მაცილა (matsila); Megrelian: ბაჭა (bach’a), მაყურზენე (maq’urzene), მელიშიაში ჯა (melishiashi ja), ჯაშმელიშია (jashmelishia); Lechkhumian: მომცვი (momtsvi); Kartlian: მოცხარი (motskhari); Okribian: ტყის-ჩაი (t’q’is-chai); Svan: ცინყა (tsinq’a) (Grossheim 1952; Ketskhoveli et al. 1971–2011; Makashvili 1991); English: bearberry. Vaccinium myrtillus: Georgian: მთის მოცვი (mtis motsvi), მოცვი (motsvi), მოდგინარი (modginari); Svan: იღვი (ighvi), მეგმულდ (megmuld); Tush: ჟოლი (zholi); Khevsur: შალშავი (shalshavi), შელშავი (shelshavi); Azeri: Черника (tsernika), гара гиле (gara gile); Armenian: мртенакан гапаласин (mrtenakan gapalacin) (Grossheim 1952; Ketskhoveli et al. 1971–2011; Makashvili 1991). Vaccinium uliginosum: Russian: Голубика (golubika); Armenian: гайгани капуйт гапаласин (gaigani kapuyit gapalacin) (Grossheim 1952; Ketskhoveli et al. 1971–2011; Makashvili 1991). Vaccinium vitis-idaea: Georgian: წითელი (ts’iteli), წითელი მოცვი (ts’iteli motsvi); Svan: ვიღვი (vighv), მაიოლ (maiol), მაია (maia); Tush: სტომი (stomi); Khevsur: წითელმოჩა (tsitelimocha); Russian: Брусника (brusnika); Azeri: гапаласенин (gapalacenin) (Grossheim 1952; Ketskhoveli et al. 1971–2011; Makashvili 1991). Botany and Ecology Vaccinium arctostaphylos: A tall shrub or a small tree, up to 2–3 m tall, with terete branches. Leaves alternate, large, 6–8 cm long, oblong to elongate-oblong, narrowed at base and apex, sometimes strongly tapering toward the apex, margins serrulate, paler below. Flowers in a loose few-flowered raceme, long-pediceled, in the axils of small ovate leafy bracts; calyx with broad rounded teeth; corolla large, 6 mm long, reddish-white, campanulate-cylindric, with five short broadly triangular lobes; sta- mens with hairy filaments; the anthers unappendaged; style sometimes slightly exerted. Berry large, globose, black. A montane species grows in Caucasus (Cis- caucasia, West and South Transcaucasia, Talysh), Balkan Peninsula, and Asia Minor. Vaccinium arctostaphylos occurs in mountain slopes, fir-and-spruce and fir-and- beech woods, rhododendron thickets, and occasionally oak forests, near the timber- line in stands of birch and occasionally of pine, sometimes forming extensive thickets. Deciduous and dark conifer forests (beech, spruce-fir, beech-fir), oak forest edges, Rhododendron ponticum shrublands; grows in a form of thickets (Ketskhoveli et al. 1971–2011;Figs.1, 2, 3,and4). Vaccinium myrtillus: Shrub with sharply angled glabrous branchlets, 15–40 cm tall; leaves deciduous, light green, turning red in fall, thin, ovate or elliptic, obtuse or acute with a soft mucro, rounded or slightly cordate at base, 10–28 mm long, Vaccinium arctostaphylos 3 Fig. 1 Vaccinium arctostaphylos (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) Fig. 2 Vaccinium arctostaphylos (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) Fig. 3 Vaccinium arctostaphylos (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) 4 R. W. Bussmann et al. Fig. 4 Vaccinium arctostaphylos (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) Fig. 5 Vaccinium myrtillus (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) Vaccinium arctostaphylos 5 6–18 mm broad, finely serrate-dentate, covered on both sides with scattered hairs, the petiole 1–1.5 mm long; flowers solitary at the base of young branchlets, nodding, the pedicels 2.5–3.5 mm long; calyx with an almost entire limb; corolla greenish- pink, urceolate-globose, 3–4.5 mm long, four- or five-lobed; stamens 8–10, the glabrous filaments dilated at base; anthers with two long appendages; berry globose, black, with a blue bloom, 6–8 mm in diameter, with reddish pulp, juice with dyestuff properties. Flowering May–June, fruiting July–September. Ural, Caucasus, and Altai, in coniferous forests up to 2000 m (Shishkin and Boborov 1952; Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9). Vaccinium oxycoccus: An evergreen creeping subshrub, the slender shoots up to 75 cm long; leaves coriaceous, on short petiole to 1 mm long, ovate to oblong-ovate, 8–16 mm long and 3–6 mm broad, revolute, acute, dark green and lustrous above, glaucescent with a waxy bloom; flowers two to four rarely six in a terminal umbellate inflorescence on the preceding year’s branches; pedicels in the axils of scale like bracts, 15–45 mm long, one-flowered, drooping, puberulent, with two minute linear bracts about the middle; calyx with four rounded sepals 0.5–0.7 mm long and 0.7–1 mm broad, ciliate-margined; corolla very deeply four-parted, with upturned pinkish-red petals, 4–7 mm long; stamens eight, densely framed by hairs, the anthers minutely warted; style slightly exceeding the stamens, both style and stamens exerted; berry dark red, juicy, globose, oblong-ovoid, or occasionally pyriform. Flowering May–July, fruiting August–September. Ural, Altai, and Cauca- sus, in Sphagnum bogs (Shishkin and Boborov 1952). Fig. 6 Vaccinium myrtillus (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) 6 R. W. Bussmann et al. Vaccinium vitis-idaea: A subshrub, from 2.5 to 25 cm tall; branchlets terete, white- hairy; leaves coriaceous, wintering, elliptic or obovate, obtuse or emarginate, slightly denticulate or entire, revolute, 5–27 mm long, 3–12 mm broad, borne on pubescent peduncles 0.5–3 mm long, dark green above, pale and dotted with dark brown glands beneath, flowers on short pubescent reddish pedicels in a terminal short but dense two- to eight-flowered clusters on the preceding year’s branchlets, with a faint but pleasant scent; calyx four-toothed, with short rounded reddish teeth, Fig. 7 Vaccinium myrtillus (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) Fig. 8 Vaccinium myrtillus (Ericaceae), Adjara, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) Vaccinium arctostaphylos 7 Fig. 9 Vaccinium myrtillus (Ericaceae) fruits, Bakuriani, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) Fig. 10 Vaccinium arctostaphylos (Ericaceae) dry leaves sold as tea, Batumi, Georgia. (Photo R.W. Bussmann & N.Y. Paniagua-Zambrana) 0.75–1.25 mm long and 0.75–1 mm broad; corolla campanulate, pale pink, 4–6.5 mm long, four-lobed; stamens eight with hairy filaments; anthers unappendaged; style exerted; ovary four-locular; berry subglobose, ripening dark red, edible. Flowering May–June; fruiting August–September. Ural, Caucasus, and Altai. In mostly coniferous mountain forests, in thickets, and in bogs. In the Caucasus up to 3300 m (Shishkin and Boborov 1952). Phytochemistry Vaccinium myrtillus: Organic acids (citric acid), essential oils, triterpenoids (amyrin, oleanolic, and ursolic acids), alkaloids (murtine), vitamins (C, B), phenols (hydroquinone, arbutin, methylarbutin, asperuloside, monotropeozide), phenol car- boxylic acids, tannins, catechins (epicatechin, gallocatechin, epigallocatechin), tan- nins, flavonoids (kaempferol, rutin, astragalin, hyperin, quercitrin, isokvetsitrine, 8 R. W. Bussmann et al. aviculine, meratin), anthocyanins (cyanidin, delphinidin, petunidin), triterpenoids (ursolic acid), phenylcarboxylic acids (Sokolov 1985). Vaccinium oxycoccos: Saponins, tannins, phenols and their derivatives (arbutin), triterpenoids (ursolic and oleanolic acids), flavonoids (quercetin, myricetin, hyperin, rutin, hesperidin), organic acids (citric, benzoic), essential oils (linalool, n-propanol, isobutanol, n-butanol, isoamyl acetate, isoamyl, n-amylol, ethylpropane, hexyl ace- tate, hexanol, ethyl lactam, ethylene antanol, heptanol, ethyl caprylate, furfural, octanol, ethyl caprylate, decanol, phenyl acetate, phenylethanol), carotene,