Bilberries / European blueberry

Description:

Vaccinium myrtillus is found natively in Europe, northern Asia, Greenland, Western Canada, and the Western United States. It occurs in the wild on heathlands and acidic soils. Its berry has been long consumed in the Old World. It is one of the wild origins and predecessors of the North American blueberry

Notes:

Since most people in the world refer to "blueberries", no matter if they mean the European blueberry Vaccinium myrtillus or the American blueberries, there is a lot of confusion about the two nearly identical fruit worldwide. One can distinguish bilberries or European blueberries from their American counterpart by the following differences: bilberries have dark blue, strongly fragrant flesh, while American blueberries have white or translucent, mildly fragrant flesh; the bilberries grow as single fruit on low bushes, usually wild in woods of the Northern Hemisphere, but American blueberries grow in a large bush with several fruit at once; bilberries are generally wild plants while American blueberries can be cultivated