Ulmus thomasii grows as a tree from 15–30 m (50–100 ft) tall, and may live for up to 300 years. Where forest-grown, the crown is cylindrical and upright with short branches, and is narrower than most other elms. Rock elm is also unusual among North American elms in that it is often monopodial. The bark is grey-brown and deeply furrowed into scaly, flattened ridges. Many older branches have 3–4 irregular thick corky wings. It is for this reason the rock elm is sometimes called the cork elm.
The leaves are 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long and 2–5 cm (3⁄4–2 in) wide, oval to obovate with a round, symmetrical base and acuminate apex. The leaf surface is shiny dark green, turning bright yellow in autumn; the underside is pubescent. The perfect apetalous, wind-pollinated flowers are red-green and appear in racemes up to 40 mm (2 in) long two weeks before the leaves from March to May, depending on the tree's location. The fruit is a broad ovate samara 13–25 mm (1⁄2–31⁄32 in) long covered with fine hair, notched at the tip, and maturing during May or June to form drooping clusters at the leaf bases.
Although U. thomasii is protandrous, levels of self-pollination remain high.


Ulmus thomasii is moderately shade-tolerant. Its preferred habitat is moist but well-drained sandy loam, loam, or silt loam soil, mixed with other hardwoods. However, it also grows on dry uplands, especially on rocky ridges and limestone bluffs.


Like most North American elms, U. thomasii is very susceptible to Dutch elm disease.


There are no known cultivars of Ulmus thomasii, nor is it known to be any longer in commerce. It appeared in some US nursery catalogues in the early 20th century.  The species is occasionally grown beyond its native range as a specimen tree in botanical gardens and arboreta, for example in northwestern Europe, but not commonly cultivated in northern Europe, being unsuited to the region's more temperate, maritime climate. However, the tree was propagated and marketed in the UK by the Hillier & Sons nursery, Winchester, Hampshire, from 1965 to 1977, during which time 49 were sold.
Ulmus thomasii was crossed experimentally with Japanese elm (U. davidiana var. japonica) at the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts, but no clones were released to commerce. Seedlings arising from crossings with Siberian elm (U. pumila) at the Lake States Forestry Experimental Station in the 1950s all perished, a classic case of hybrid lethality.


The US National Champion, measuring 100 ft (30 m) high in 1989, grows in Cass County, Michigan.


The wood of the rock elm is the hardest and heaviest of all elms, and where forest-grown remains comparatively free of knots and other defects. It is also very strong and takes a high polish, and consequently was once in great demand in America and Europe for a wide range of uses, notably boatbuilding, furniture, agricultural tools, and musical instruments.
Much of the timber's strength is derived from the tight grain arising from the tree's very slow rate of growth, the trunk typically increasing in diameter by less than 2 mm (3⁄32 in) a year. Over 250 annual growth rings were once counted in a log 24 cm (9+1⁄2 in) square being sawn for gunwales in an English boatyard, while a tree once grown at Kew Gardens, London, attained a height of only 12 m (39 ft) in 50 years.


North America
Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts, US. Acc. no. 444-88.
Brenton Arboretum, Dallas Center, Iowa, US. No acc. details available.
Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa, Canada. No acc. details.
Morton Arboretum, Illinois, US. Acc. no. 178-84, wild collected from Reedsville, Wisconsin; 843-2005 (Kelleys Island, Erie County, Ohio); 122-2006 (Dixon County, Nebraska).
Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, US. No details available.
Europe
Grange Farm Arboretum, Lincolnshire, UK. Acc. no. 706.
National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise, Belgium. Acc. no. 19800105.
National Botanic Gardens, Ireland, Glasnevin, Ireland. Location: A3 (155)
Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK.  Acc. no. 2008.0419, wild collected in Ontario, Canada, by Kristl Walek
Wakehurst Place Garden Wakehurst Place, UK. Acc. no. 1968-48603.


Ulva intestinalis is a green alga in the family Ulvaceae, known by the common names sea lettuce, gutweed  and grass kelp. Until they were reclassified by genetic work completed in the early 2000s, the tubular members of the sea lettuce genus Ulva were placed in the genus Enteromorpha.


The fronds have branches and are completely tubular expanding in width to mid-thallus, reaching 15 cm long or more. The cells are irregularly arranged and the chloroplast is hood-shaped and placed to one side, generally with only one pyrenoid. The species may be 10–30 centimetres (3.9–11.8 in) long and 6–18 millimetres (0.24–0.71 in) wide. They have rounded tips as well.
The alga may be reproductive at all times of the year, and has a life-cycle with alternation of generations, in which the gametophyte and sporophyte are isomorphic, having identical morphology.
In some references the species (Ulva intestinalis) is treated as two subspecies: ssp. intestinalis (L.) Link and ssp. compressa (L.) Link.


Danish: tarm-rørhinde
Dutch: echt darmwier
French: entéromorphe
German: Darmtang, gemeiner Darmtang
Norwegian: tarmgrønske
Polish: sałata, taśma, watka
Swedish: tarmalg
Thai: สาหร่ายไส้ไก่
Portuguese: erva-patinha


Ulva lactuca, also known by the common name sea lettuce, is an edible green alga in the family Ulvaceae. It is the type species of the genus Ulva. A synonym is U. fenestrata, referring to its "windowed" or "holed" appearance.


Ulva lactuca is a thin flat green alga growing from a discoid holdfast. The margin is somewhat ruffled and often torn. It may reach 18 centimetres (7.1 in) or more in length, though generally much less, and up to 30 centimetres (12 in) across. The membrane is two cells thick, soft and translucent, and grows attached, without a stipe, to rocks or other algae by a small disc-shaped holdfast.
Green to dark green in colour, this species in the Chlorophyta is formed of two layers of cells irregularly arranged, as seen in cross-section. The chloroplast is cup-shaped in some references but as a parietal plate in others with one to three pyrenoids. There are other species of Ulva which are similar and not always easy to differentiate.


The distribution is worldwide: Europe, North America (west and east coasts), Central America, Caribbean Islands, South America, Africa, Indian Ocean Islands, South-west Asia, China, Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand.


Ulva lactuca is very common on rocks and on other algae in the littoral and sublittoral on shores all around the British Isles, the coast of France, the Low Countries and up to Denmark. It is particularly prolific in areas where nutrients are abundant. This has been the case off the coast of Brittany where a high level of nitrates, from the intensive farming there, washes out to sea. The result is that large quantities of Ulva lactuca are washed up on beaches, where their decay produces methane, hydrogen sulfide, and other gases.
Certain environmental conditions can lead to the algae spreading over large areas. In August 2009, unprecedented levels of the algae washed up on the beaches of Brittany, France, causing a major public health scare as it decomposed. The rotting thalli produced large quantities of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas which, like hydrogen cyanide, inhibits cytochrome c oxidase, inhibiting cellular respiration and resulting in critical cellular hypoxia. In one incident near Saint-Michel-en-Grève, a horse rider lost consciousness and his horse died after breathing the seaweed fumes. Environmentalists blamed the phenomenon on excessive use of fertilizers and the excretion of nitrates by pig and poultry farmers. In an earlier separate incident at the same beach in July 2009, a truck driver had died near his vehicle after hauling three truckloads of sea lettuce without protective gear during the annual cleanup. Although initially recorded as a heart attack, the death of the truck driver prompted French authorities to exhume his remains for an autopsy. It was later determined to be cardiac arrest resulting from pulmonary edema, which is an indication of possible hydrogen sulfide poisoning. Dead animals found on the algae-clogged beaches (including thirty-one wild boars in July 2011) were also claimed to be linked to toxic fumes by environmentalists.


The sporangial and gametangial thalli are morphologically alike. The diploid adult plant produces haploid zoospores by meiosis, these settle and grow to form haploid male and female plants similar to the diploid plants. When these haploid plants release gametes they unite to produce the zygote which germinates, and grows to produce the diploid plant.


U. lactuca is locally used in Scotland in soups and salads. In Hawaiʻi, U. lactuca is also called limu pālahala and eaten in different ways: mixed with other algae, salted and served with raw fish, boiled in water and served as a soup, or served with chili pepper, onions, soy sauce and sugar. Additionally, U. lactuca has traditional uses in Hawaiʻi as fertilizer and as adornment for hula. When U. lactuca is used for hula it is called limu pāpahapaha.


Umbellularia californica is a large hardwood tree native to coastal forests and the Sierra foothills of California, and to coastal forests extending into Oregon. It is endemic to the California Floristic Province. It is the sole species in the genus Umbellularia.
The tree was formerly known as Oreodaphne californica. In Yuki, it is called pōl’-cum ōl. In Oregon, this tree is known as Oregon myrtle, while in California it is called California bay laurel, which may be shortened to California bay or California laurel. It has also been called pepperwood, spicebush, cinnamon bush, peppernut tree, headache tree, mountain laurel, and balm of heaven.
The tree's pungent leaves have a similar flavor to bay leaves, though stronger, and it may be mistaken for bay laurel. The dry wood has a color range from blonde (like maple) to brown (like walnut). It is considered an excellent tonewood and is sought after by luthiers and woodworkers.
The tree is a host of the pathogen that causes sudden oak death.


It is an evergreen tree growing to 30 metres (98 feet) tall with a trunk up to 90 centimetres (35 inches) thick. The largest recorded tree is in
Mendocino County, California, and measured (as of 1997) 33 m (108 ft) in height with a 36 m (119 ft) spread. The thin bark is smooth and gray-brown when young, later turning reddish brown and scaly.
The fragrant leaves are smooth-edged and lance-shaped, 3–15 cm long and around a third as wide, similar to the related bay laurel, though usually narrower, and without the crinkled margin of that species. The leaves are green, and lighter on the underside. The bark and leaves have a pungent scent resembling  camphor when bruised, due to a chemical known as umbellulone.
The flowers are small, yellow or yellowish-green, produced in small umbels (hence the scientific name Umbellularia, "little umbel"). Unlike other "bay laurels" of the genus Laurus, Umbellularia has perfect flowers (male and female parts in the same flower).
The fruit, also known as "California bay nut", is a round and green berry 2–2.5 cm long and 2 cm broad, lightly spotted with yellow, maturing purple. Under the thin, leathery skin, it consists of an oily, fleshy covering over a single hard, thin-shelled pit, and resembles a miniature avocado. Umbellularia is in fact closely related to the avocado's genus Persea, within the family Lauraceae. The fruit ripens around October–November in the native range.
The oldest-known living laurel is the Jepson Laurel, named after Willis Linn Jepson, in San Mateo County. The tree lives on San Francisco Water Department land, which agency cares for the tree. With their permission, the county parks places a placard and a picnic area nearby.


Umbellularia is found in southwest Oregon and in California south to San Diego County. It is also found in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It occurs at altitudes from sea level up to 1,600 m (5,200 ft). It is an introduced species in British Columbia, Washington, and northern Oregon.
It mostly inhabits redwood forests, California mixed woods, yellow pine forest, and oak woodlands. Bays occur in oak woodland close to the coast, and in northern California where moisture is sufficient, usually in or near riparian areas. The species is very shade tolerant. It is reduced to a shrub in extreme dry and hot habitats.
During the Miocene, oak-laurel forests were found in Central and Southern California. Typical tree species included oaks ancestral to present-day California oaks, and an assemblage of trees from the laurel family, including Nectandra, Ocotea, Persea, and Umbellularia. Only one native species from the laurel family, Umbellularia californica, remains in California today.


The trees resprout after being killed by fire. Deer browse the fresh sprouts.
The species is a host of Phytophthora ramorum, the pathogen that causes the disease sudden oak death. It is important in this sense because it is one of two tree species (tanoak being the other) on which the pathogen readily produces spores.


The leaf has been used in cooking but contains large amounts of the toxic compound umbellulone, which causes methemoglobinemia. Umbellulone is absent from culinary bay leaves (Laurus nobilis). Umbellularia leaf imparts a somewhat stronger camphor/cinnamon flavor compared to the Mediterranean bay.
Some modern-day foragers and wild food enthusiasts have adopted Native American practices regarding the edible roasted fruit, the bay nut.
Umbellularia californica is also used in woodworking. It is considered a tonewood, used to construct the backs and sides of acoustic guitars. The wood is very hard and fine, and is also made into bowls, spoons, and other small items and sold as "myrtlewood".
It is also grown as an ornamental tree, both in its native area, and further north up the Pacific coast to Vancouver in Canada, and in western Europe. It can be planted as a hedge or windbreak. It is occasionally used for firewood.
According to a modern Miwok recipe for acorn soup, "it is essential that you add a generous amount of California laurel" when storing acorns to dry, to keep insects away from the acorns.
One popular use for the leaves is to put them between the bed mattresses to get rid of, or prevent, flea infestations.
The wood is used as lumber in furniture making, especially highly figured specimens.


Wall pennywort grows to an average of 25 cm (9.8 in) high. The pallid spikes of bell-shaped, greenish-pink flowers of this plant first appear in May, and the green fruits ripen through the summer.


The plant is found in southern and western Europe, often growing on shady walls or in damp rock crevices that are sparse in other plant growth (thus, "wall" pennywort), where its succulent leaves develop in rosettes.
It is not at present under threat.


Umbilicus rupestris is not the same "Pennywort" as the one used in Asian medicine, which is the unrelated Asiatic Pennywort, Centella asiatica.
Umbilicus rupestris is used in homeopathic medicine. Navelwort is referred to as Cotyledon umbilicus by Homeopaths, since that was the original scientific name of navelwort when Homeopathy was developed.
Navelwort is also assumed to be the "Kidneywort" referred to by Nicholas Culpeper in The English Physician, although it may actually refer to the unrelated Anemone hepatica. Culpeper used astrology, rather than science, to classify herbs, and as such is not a reliable source. He claimed:
The juice or the distilled water being drank, is very effectual for all inflammations and unnatural heats, to cool a fainting hot stomach, a hot liver, or the bowels: the herb, juice, or distilled water thereof, outwardly applied, heals pimples, St. Anthony's fire, and other outward heats.
The said juice or water helps to heal sore kidneys, torn or fretted by the stone, or exulcerated within; it also provokes urine, is available for the dropsy, and helps to break the stone. Being used as a bath, or made into an ointment, it cools the painful piles or hæmorrhoidal veins. It is no less effectual to give ease to the pains of the gout, the sciatica, and helps the kernels or knots in the neck or throat, called the king's evil: healing kibes and chilblains if they be bathed with the juice, or anointed with ointment made thereof, and some of the skin of the leaf upon them: it is also used in green wounds to stay the blood, and to heal them quickly.


Vulnerary: The plant is sometimes employed to ease pain on scratches by applying the leaf to the skin after removing the lower cuticle.


Ungnadia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae containing one species, Ungnadia speciosa, the Mexican buckeye. It is native to northern Mexico, as well as Texas and southern New Mexico in the United States. The name honours Austrian ambassador Baron David von Ungnad, who brought the horse chestnut to Vienna in 1576, introducing the plant into western Europe.
It differs from the buckeyes in the related genus Aesculus  but the seeds and nuts are similar. Another similar related genus is the soapberry (genus Sapindus). Ungnadia seeds are poisonous despite their sweetness, and sometimes used as marbles. The foliage is toxic and rarely browsed by livestock, but bees produce honey from the floral nectar.


Ungnadia speciosa a deciduous shrub or small tree (< 25 ft) that is often multi trunked. The leaves (5 – 12 in) are alternate and pinnately compound with 5 - 9 leaflets.  The leaflets are long (3 – 5 in), narrow, and pointed with slight serrations.


Urania fulgens, the urania swallowtail moth or green page moth, is a day-flying moth of the family Uraniidae. The species was first described by Francis Walker in 1854. It is found from Veracruz, Mexico, through Central America to northwestern South America (west of the Andes and south to Ecuador). It is highly migratory and has been recorded as a vagrant to the US state of Texas.
It is sometimes confused with the similar U. leilus, but that species is found east of the Andes in South America, is slightly larger, and has more white to the "tail". The two have been treated as conspecific.
As appears to be the case for all Urania, the larvae of U. fulgens feed exclusively on the toxic Omphalea species.


Urbanus dorantes, the lilac-banded longtail or Dorantes longtail, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from Argentina, north through Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies to southern Texas and peninsular Florida. Strays can be found as far north as northern California, southern Arizona, southern Missouri and North Carolina.
The wingspan is 37–51 mm. There are three to four generations throughout the year in southern Florida and southern Texas.
The larvae feed on various legumes, including wild and cultivated Phaseolus species, Desmodium and blue peas Clitoria. Adults feed on flower nectar from various plants, including shepherd's needle, lantana, trilisa, ironweed, and bougainvillea.


Urbanus dorantes dorantes (Texas, Mexico, Surinam, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela)
Urbanus dorantes santiago (Brazil, Jamaica, Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, Grenada)
Urbanus dorantes obscurus (Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saba, Antigua, Grenada, Barbados)
Urbanus dorantes galapagensis (Galapagos)
Urbanus dorantes calafia (Mexico (Baja California))
Urbanus dorantes cramptoni (Antilles, Puerto Rico)


Urbanus procne, the brown longtail, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from Argentina, north through Central America and Mexico to southern Texas. Rare strays can be found up to southern New Mexico, southern Arizona and southern California.
The wingspan is 37–48 mm. There are three generations per year in southern Texas.
The larvae feed on various grasses, including Cynodon dactylon and Sorghum halepense.


The long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus) is a spread-winged skipper butterfly found throughout tropical and subtropical South America, south to Argentina and north into the Eastern United States and southern Ontario. It cannot live in areas with prolonged frost.  It is a showy butterfly, with wings of light brown tinted with iridescent blue, and two long tails extending from the hindwings. The robust body is light blue dorsally. It has a large head, prominent eyes, and a wingspan between 4.5 and 6 centimeters.


U. p. domingo flies in the Bahamas and throughout the West Indies, but it is only weakly differentiated from the nominate form, chiefly by its reduced white markings.


Each individual plant grows as a single stalk that freely sends out bushy stems. The leaf shape is palmately lobed (having lobes that spread out like fingers on a hand). Like the stem, the leaves also have tiny hairs. Flowers of the plant are pink-violet and grow one centimeter in width. The fruit is also hairy and may stick to clothing or fur.


The plant can invade areas of ecological disturbance as well as eroded places, crop plantations, and pastures. Caesarweed is considered an invasive species in the state of Florida, United States. There it grows as an annual in most areas except for in the southern region, where it may live perennially. In Florida, the plant has been reported to grow rapidly from 0.5 meters (1.6 ft) to 2 meters (6.6 ft) by the end of its first year of growth. The plant is not competitive in tall grasses or under canopies.
The University of Florida's pest management procedures for handling this plant include prevention through treating before seeds form and maneuvering vehicles to avoid driving near Caesarweed, mulching and shading to prevent germination, and the use of chemical herbicides.


In the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Vol. 1 [1751], p. 191), Denis Diderot's article about the plant is listed under the heading Aguaxima, a common Portuguese name for the plant. The entry is notable not for its one-sentence description of its subject ("Aguaxima, a plant growing in Brazil and on the islands of South America."), but for Diderot's editorializing that follows it. Frustrated by the uselessness of such a poor article, he muses about what audience it could possibly serve. His conclusion is a succinct critique of the popular assumption that encyclopedias should be measured according to their breadth or comprehensiveness rather than quality.
Aguaxima, a plant growing in Brazil and on the islands of South America. This is all that we are told about it; and I would like to know for whom such descriptions are made. It cannot be for the natives of the countries concerned, who are likely to know more about the aguaxima than is contained in this description, and who do not need to learn that the aguaxima grows in their country. It is as if you said to a Frenchman that the pear tree is a tree that grows in France, in Germany, etc . It is not meant for us either, for what do we care that there is a tree in Brazil named aguaxima, if all we know about it is its name? What is the point of giving the name? It leaves the ignorant just as they were and teaches the rest of us nothing. If all the same I mention this plant here, along with several others that are described just as poorly, then it is out of consideration for certain readers who prefer to find nothing in a dictionary article or even to find something stupid than to find no article at all.


The common murre or common guillemot (Uria aalge) is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.
Common murres have fast direct flight but are not very agile. They are more maneuverable underwater, typically diving to depths of 30–60 m (100–195 ft). Depths of up to 180 m (590 ft) have been recorded.
Common murres breed in colonies at high densities. Nesting pairs may be in bodily contact with their neighbours. They make no nest; their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face. Eggs hatch after ~30 days incubation. The chick is born downy and can regulate its body temperature after 10 days. Some 20 days after hatching the chick leaves its nesting ledge and heads for the sea, unable to fly, but gliding for some distance with fluttering wings, accompanied by its male parent. Male guillemots spend more time diving, and dive more deeply than females during this time. Chicks are capable of diving as soon as they hit the water. The female stays at the nest site for some 14 days after the chick has left.
Both male and female common murres moult after breeding and become flightless for 1–2 months. In some populations they occasionally return to the nest site throughout the winter. Adult birds reduce the time that they spend flying during the winter and are able to forage nocturnally.


The auks are a family of seabirds related to the gulls and terns which contains several genera. The common murre is placed in the guillemot (murre) genus Uria (Brisson, 1760), which it shares with the thick-billed murre or Brunnich's guillemot, U. lomvia. These species, together with the razorbill, little auk and the extinct great auk make up the tribe Alcini. This arrangement was originally based on analyses of auk morphology and ecology.
The binomial name derives from Greek ouriaa, a waterbird mentioned by Athenaeus, and Danish aalge, "auk" (from Old Norse alka).
The English "guillemot" is from French guillemot, probably derived from Guillaume, "William". "Murre" is of uncertain origins, but may imitate the call of the common guillemot.
The official common name for this species is Common Murre according to the IOC World Bird List, Version 11.2. Unofficial names include common guillemot, used in the UK.


The common murre is 38–46 cm (15–18 in) in length with a 61–73 cm (24–29 in) wingspan. Male and female are indistinguishable in the field and weight ranges between 945 g (2 lb 1+1⁄2 oz) in the south of their range to 1,044 g (2 lb 5 oz) in the north. A weight range of 775–1,250 g (1 lb 11+1⁄2 oz – 2 lb 12 oz) has been reported. In breeding plumage, the nominate subspecies (U. a. aalge) is black on the head, back and wings, and has white underparts. It has thin dark pointed bill and a small rounded dark tail. After the pre-basic moult, the face is white with a dark spur behind the eye. Birds of the subspecies U. a. albionis are dark brown rather than black, most obviously so in colonies in southern Britain. Legs are grey and the bill is dark grey. Occasionally, adults are seen with yellow/grey legs. In May 2008, an aberrant adult was photographed with a bright yellow bill.
The plumage of first winter birds is the same as the adult basic plumage. However, the first pre-alternate moult occurs later in the year. The adult pre-alternate moult is December–February, (even starting as early as November in U. a. albionis). First year birds can be in basic plumage as late as May, and their alternate plumage can retain some white feathers around the throat.
Some individuals in the North Atlantic, known as "bridled guillemots", have a white ring around the eye extending back as a white line. This is not a distinct subspecies, but a polymorphism that becomes more common the farther north the birds breed—perhaps character displacement with the northerly thick-billed murre, which has a white bill-stripe but no bridled morph. The white is highly contrasting especially in the latter species and would provide an easy means for an individual bird to recognize conspecifics in densely packed breeding colonies.
The chicks are downy with blackish feathers on top and white below. By 12 days old, contour feathers are well developed in areas except for the head. At 15 days, facial feathers show the dark eyestripe against the white throat and cheek.


The common murre flies with fast wing beats and has a flight speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). Groups of birds are often seen flying together in a line just above the sea surface. However, a high wing loading of 2 g/cm² means that this species is not very agile and take-off is difficult. Common murres become flightless for 45–60 days while moulting their primary feathers. The sound of the wing beats of the murres are often described as similar to a helicopter.


The common murre is a pursuit-diver that forages for food by swimming underwater using its wings for propulsion. Dives usually last less than one minute, but the bird swims underwater for distances of over 30 m (100 ft) on a regular basis. Diving depths up to 180 m (590 ft) have been recorded and birds can remain underwater for a couple of minutes.


The breeding habitat is islands, rocky shores, cliffs and sea stacks. The population is large, perhaps 7.3 million breeding pairs  or 18 million individuals. It had been stable, but in 2016 a massive die-off of the birds in the northeast Pacific was reported.  The birds seem emaciated and starving; no etiology has been found.  In general, potential threats include excessive hunting (legal in Newfoundland), pollution and oil spills. Cape Meares, Oregon is home to one of the most populous colonies of nesting common murres on the North American continent.
Some birds are permanent residents; northern birds migrate south to open waters near New England, southern California, Japan, Korea and the western Mediterranean. UK populations are generally distributed near their breeding colonies year-round, but have been found to make long-distance migrations as far north as the Barents Sea. Common murres rest on the water in the winter and this may have consequences for their metabolism. In the black-legged kittiwake (which shares this winter habit) resting metabolism is 40% higher on water than it is in air.


The common murre can venture far from its breeding grounds to forage; distances of 100 km (60 mi) and more are often observed though if sufficient food is available closer by, birds only travel much shorter distances. The common murre mainly eats small schooling forage fish 200 mm (8 in) long or less, such as polar cod, capelin, sand lances, sprats, sandeels, Atlantic cod and Atlantic herring. Capelin and sand lances are favourite food, but what the main prey is at any one time depends much on what is available in quantity. It also eats some molluscs, marine worms, squid, and crustaceans such as amphipods. It consumes 20–32 g (11⁄16–1+1⁄8 oz) of food in a day on average. It is often seen carrying fish in its bill with the tail hanging out.
The snake pipefish is occasionally eaten, but it has poor nutritional value. The amount of these fish is increasing in the common murre's diet. Since 2003, the snake pipefish has increased in numbers in the North-east Atlantic and North Sea and sandeel numbers have declined.


The common murre has a variety of calls, including a soft purring noise.


The common murre nests in densely packed colonies (known as "loomeries"), with up to twenty pairs occupying one square metre at peak season. Common murres do not make nests and lay their eggs on bare rock ledges, under rocks, or the ground. Despite the high density of murre breeding sites, sites may vary greatly in their quality over small spatial scales. Pairs breeding at those sites of highest quality are more likely to be occupied by a breeding pairs at all population sizes, and more likely to successfully fledge a chick. They first breed at four to nine years old, but most individuals recruit into the breeding population at ages six or seven, although birds may disperse (permanently depart their natal colony) if space is limited. Annual survival probability for birds aged 6–15 is 0.895, and average lifespan is about 20 years. Breeding success increases with age up to age 9–10 to 0.7 fledglings per pair, then declines in the oldest age birds, perhaps indicating reproductive senescence.
High densities mean that birds are close contact with neighbouring breeders. Common murres perform appeasement displays more often at high densities and more often than razorbills. Allopreening is common both between mates and between neighbours. Allopreening helps to reduce parasites, and it may also have important social functions. Frequency of allopreening a neighbour correlates well with current breeding success. Allopreening may function as a stress-reducer; ledges with low levels of allopreening show increased levels of fighting and reduced breeding success.


Courtship displays including bowing, billing and mutual preening. The male points its head vertically and makes croaking and growling noises to attract the females. The species is monogamous, but pairs may split if breeding is unsuccessful.


Common murre eggs are large (around 11% of female weight), and are pointed at one end. The egg's pyriform shape is popularly ascribed the function of allowing the egg to spin on its axis or in an arc when disturbed, however there is no evidence to support this claim. Various hypotheses have arisen to explain the egg's shape:
Pyriform eggs are more stable on a sloping surface than more elliptical eggs, such as that of the razorbill.
The shape allows efficient heat transfer during incubation.
As a compromise between large egg size and small cross-section. Large size allows quick development of the chick. Small cross-sectional area allows the adult bird to have a small cross-section and therefore reduce drag when swimming.
Due to its pyriform shape, a higher proportion of the eggshell is in contact with the cliff minimising the effects of impact by neighbouring birds.
It helps to confine faecal contamination to the pointy end of the egg. The blunt end, where the embryo's head and air cell are located, is kept relatively free of debris, allowing gases to pass through the shell unimpeded;.
Eggs are laid between May and July for the Atlantic populations and March to July for those in the Pacific. The female spends less time ashore during the two weeks before laying. When laying, she assumes a "phoenix-like" posture: her body raised upright on vertical tarsi; wings half outstretched. The egg emerges point first and laying usually takes 5–10 minutes.
The eggs vary in colour and pattern to help the parents recognize them, each egg's pattern being unique. Colours include white, green, blue or brown with spots or speckles in black or lilac. After laying, the female will look at the egg before starting the first incubation shift. Both parents incubate the egg using a single, centrally located brood patch for the 28 to 34 days to hatching in shifts of 1–38 hours.
Eggs can be lost due to predation or carelessness. Crows and gulls are opportunist egg thieves. Eggs are also knocked from ledges during fights. If the first egg is lost, the female may lay a second egg. This egg is usually lighter than the first, with a lighter yolk. Chicks from second eggs grow quicker than those from first eggs. However this rapid growth comes at a cost, first chicks have larger fat reserves and can withstand temporary shortages of food.


Chicks occupy an intermediate position between the precocial chicks of genus Synthliboramphus and the semi-precocial chicks of the Atlantic puffin. They are born downy and by 10 days old they are able to regulate their own temperature. Except in times of food shortage there is at least one parent present at all times, and both parents are present 10–30% of the time. Both parents alternate between brooding the chick or foraging for food.
Provisioning is usually divided equally between each parent, but unequal provisioning effort can lead to divorce. Common murres are single-prey loaders, this means that they carry one fish at time. The fish is held lengthways in the adult's bill, with the fish's tail hanging from the end of the beak. The returning adult will form its wings into a 'tent' to protect the chick. The adult points its head downwards and the chick swallows the fish head first.
Alloparenting behaviour is frequently observed. Non-breeding and failed breeders show great interest in other chicks, and will attempt to brood or feed them. This activity is more common as the chicks get older and begin to explore their ledge. There has also been a record of a pair managing to raise two chicks. Adults that have lost chicks or eggs will sometimes bring fish to the nest site and try to feed their imaginary chick.
At time of extreme food stress, the social activity of the breeding ledge can break down. On the Isle of May colony in 2007, food availability was low. Adults spent more of their time-budget foraging for their chicks and had to leave them unattended at times. Unattended chicks were attacked by breeding neighbour which often led to their deaths. Non-breeding and failed breeders continued to show alloparental care.
The chicks will leave the nest after 16 to 30 days (average 20–22 days), and glide down into the sea, slowing their fall by fluttering as they are not yet able to fly. Chicks glide from heights as high as 457 m (1,499 ft) to the water below. Once the young chick has left the nest, the male is in close attendance for up to two months. The chicks are able to fly roughly two weeks after fledging. Up until then the male feeds and cares for the chick at sea. In its migration south the chick swims about 1,000 km (600 mi). The female remains at the nest site for up to 36 days after the chick has fledged (average 16 days).


Nesting common murres are prone to two main sources of recreational disturbance: rock-climbing and birdwatching. Sea cliffs are a paradise for climbers as well as birds; a small island like Lundy has over 1000 described climbing routes. To minimise disturbance, some cliffs are subject to seasonal climbing bans.
Birdwatching has conflicting effects on common murres. Birdwatchers petitioned the UK government to introduce the Sea Birds Preservation Act 1869. This act was designed to reduce the effects of shooting and egg collecting during the breeding season. Current concerns include managing the effect of visitor numbers at wildlife reserves. Common murres have been shown to be sensitive to visitor numbers.


When common murres are feeding their young, they return with one fish at a time. The provisioning time relates to the distance of the feeding areas from the colony and the numbers of available fish. There is a strong non-linear relationship between fish density and colony attendance during chick-rearing.


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The red-billed blue magpie (Urocissa erythroryncha) is a species of bird in the crow family, Corvidae. It is about the same size as the Eurasian magpie, but has a much longer tail, one of the longest of any corvid. It is 65–68 cm (25.5–27 in) long and weighs 196–232 g (6.9–8.2 oz).


The red-billed blue magpie was described by  French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1775 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.  Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name, but in 1783, Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Corvus erythrorynchus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The specimen described by Buffon had come from China, but the type location was restricted to Canton by Hugh Birckhead in 1937. The red-billed blue magpie is now one of five species placed in the genus Urocissa that was introduced by German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1850. The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek oura meaning "tail" and kissa meaning "magpie". The specific epithet erythroryncha combines the Ancient Greek eruthros meaning "red" and rhunkhos meaning "bill".
Five subspecies are recognised:
U. e. occipitalis (Blyth, 1846) – northwest India to east Nepal
U. e. magnirostris (Blyth, 1846) – northeast India to south Indochina
U. e. alticola Birckhead, 1938 – north Myanmar and south-central China
U. e. brevivexilla R. Swinhoe, 1874 – northeast China
U. e. erythroryncha (Boddaert, 1783) – central, east, and southeast China, north Indochina


The red-billed blue magpie occurs in a broad swath from the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, and further eastwards. It ranges from the western Himalayas eastwards into Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and through central and eastern China to southwest Manchuria, in evergreen forest and scrub in predominantly hilly or mountainous country. It has adapted to urban habitat, and can be seen in large cities in China such as Beijing and Hong Kong. They nest in trees and large shrubs in a relatively shallow nest. Usually, three to five eggs are laid.
Food is sought both in trees and on the ground. It takes the usual wide range of food, such as invertebrates, other small animals, and fruit and some seeds. It robs nests of eggs and also chicks. Vocal mimicry is very apparent in this species, and its calls are very varied, but the most usual are a grating rattle and a high-pitched whistle somewhat like a flute.


Urospermum dalechampii, the smooth golden fleece, is a perennial herbaceous plant  belonging to the genus Urospermum of the family Asteraceae.


Urospermum dalechampii reaches on average 25–40 centimetres (9.8–15.7 in) of height, with a minimum height of 10 centimetres (3.9 in) and a maximum height of 50 centimetres (20 in). This plant is quite hairy, with a single or branched stem. Basal leaves are usually arranged in a rosette of toothed leaves, while cauline leaves are just a few and smaller, more or less undivided and amplexicaul. The flowers are hermaphrodite. The flower heads are yellow sulfur, about five centimeter wide. Involucral bracts vary from seven to eight. Blooms are abundant throughout the Spring. The flowering period extends from March through August.  The long, beaked fruit is an achene, and has a feathery, slightly reddish pappus


This plant occurs in Western and Central Mediterranean from Spain to Dalmatia and North Africa.


These plants can be found on roadsides, dry grasslands or wastelands at 0–1,200 metres (0–3,937 ft) above sea level. They are commonly grown in drained soil and sunny places throughout the year.


Urospermum picroides is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name prickly goldenfleece. It is native to Eurasia and it is known as an introduced species in many other regions, including North and South America, Australia, and southern Africa. It grows as a common weed in disturbed habitat. This annual herb grows up to 30 to 50 centimeters tall. It is coated in long hairs and bristles. The bristly leaves are variously shaped, often divided into many sharp-toothed lobes. The inflorescence bears flower heads on thick peduncles. The head is 1 to 2 centimeters long or more and filled with yellow ray florets. It is enveloped in several pointed phyllaries which are covered in bristly hairs. The fruit is an achene well over a centimeter in length which is tipped with a pappus of bristles.


Urtica chamaedryoides (commonly called heartleaf nettle) is a species of flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. It is native to the Southeastern United States and northern Mexico, where it is often found in wooded areas that are rich and moist. In some areas of Florida, it has become a lawn and pasture weed.
Like other nettles, Urtica chamaedryoides produces stinging hairs that cause an insect-venom like sting when touched. It produces small green flowers that are wind pollinated.


Urtica dioica, often known as common nettle, burn nettle, stinging nettle (although not all plants of this species sting) or nettle leaf, or just a nettle or stinger, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Urticaceae. Originally native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa, it is now found worldwide, including New Zealand and  North America. The species is divided into six subspecies, five of which have many hollow stinging hairs called trichomes on the leaves and stems, which act like hypodermic needles, injecting histamine and other chemicals that produce a stinging sensation upon contact ("contact urticaria", a form of contact dermatitis).
The plant has a long history of use as a source for traditional medicine, food, tea, and textile raw material in ancient (such as Saxon) and modern societies.


Urtica dioica is a dioecious, herbaceous, perennial plant, 1 to 2 metres (3 to 7 feet) tall in the summer and dying down to the ground in winter. It has widely spreading rhizomes and stolons, which are bright yellow, as are the roots. The soft, green leaves are 3 to 15 centimetres (1 to 6 inches) long and are borne oppositely on an erect, wiry, green stem. The leaves have a strongly serrated margin, a cordate base, and an acuminate tip with a terminal leaf tooth longer than adjacent laterals. It bears small, greenish or brownish, numerous flowers in dense axillary inflorescences.
The leaves and stems are very hairy with non-stinging hairs, and in most subspecies, also bear many stinging hairs (trichomes or spicules), whose tips come off when touched, transforming the hair into a needle that can inject several chemicals causing a painful sting or paresthesia, giving the species its common names: stinging nettle, burn-nettle, burn-weed, or burn-hazel.


Urtica is derived from a Latin word meaning 'sting'.
Dioica (δίοικος) is derived from Greek, meaning 'of two houses' (having separate staminate and pistillate plants; dioecious).


U. dioica is considered to be native to Europe, much of temperate Asia and western North Africa. It is abundant in northern Europe and much of Asia, usually found in the countryside. It is less widespread in southern Europe and north Africa, where it is restricted by its need for moist soil, but is still common. It has been introduced to many other parts of the world. In North America, it is widely distributed in Canada and the United States, where it is found in every province and state except for Hawaii, and also can be found in northernmost Mexico. It grows in abundance in the Pacific Northwest, especially in places where annual rainfall is high. The European subspecies has been introduced into Australia, North America and South America.
In Europe, nettles have a strong association with human habitation and buildings. The presence of nettles may indicate the site of a long-abandoned building, and can also indicate soil fertility. Human and animal waste may be responsible for elevated levels of phosphate and nitrogen in the soil, providing an ideal environment for nettles.


Nettles are the larval food plant for several species of butterflies, such as the peacock butterfly, comma (Polygonia c-album), and the small tortoiseshell. It is also eaten by the larvae of some moths including angle shades, buff ermine, dot moth, the flame, the gothic, grey chi, grey pug, lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing, mouse moth, setaceous Hebrew character, and small angle shades. The roots are sometimes eaten by the larva of the ghost moth (Hepialus humuli).
Stinging nettle is particularly found as an understory plant in wetter environments, but it is also found in meadows. Although nutritious, it is not widely eaten by either wildlife or livestock, presumably because of the sting. It spreads by abundant seeds and also by rhizomes, and is often able to survive and re-establish quickly after fire.


Three cultivation techniques can be used for the stinging nettle: 1) direct sowing, 2) growing seedlings in nurseries with subsequent transplantation and 3) vegetative propagation via stolons or head cuttings.
Direct sowing: The seedbed should have a loose and fine structure, but should be reconsolidated using a packer roller imminently prior to sowing. Sowing time can be either in autumn or in spring. Seed density should be 6 kilograms/hectare with row spacing of 30 cm (12 in) and 42–50 cm in autumn and spring, respectively. The disadvantage of direct sowing is that it usually leads to incomplete plant coverage. This drawback can be mitigated by covering the seedbed with a transparent perforated foil in order to improve seed germination. Further, weed control can be problematic as the stinging nettle has a slow seedling development time.
Growing seedlings: For this technique pre-germinated seeds are sown between mid-/end-February and beginning of April and grown in nurseries. Seedlings are grown in tuffs with 3–5 plants/tuff and a seed density of 1.2–1.6 kg/1000 tuffs. A fastened germination is achieved by alternating high temperature during daytime (30 °C for 8 h) and lower temperature during nighttime (20 °C for 16 h). Before transplanting, the seedlings should be fertilized and acclimated to cold temperatures. Transplantation should start around Mid-April with row spacing of 42–50 cm (17–20 in) and plant spacing within rows of 25–30 cm.
Vegetative propagation: Stolons (with several buds) of 10 cm should be planted from mid-April in a depth of 5–7 cm (2–2+3⁄4 in). Head cuttings are grown in nurseries starting between mid-May and mid-June. Growing tips with two leaf pairs are cut from the mother plant and treated with root-growth inducing hormones. Transplantation can be delayed in comparison to the growing seedling technique.


The stinging nettle can also be grown in controlled-environment agriculture systems, such as soil-less medium cultivations or aeroponics, which may achieve higher yields, standardize quality, and reduce harvesting costs and contamination.


U. dioica has a flavour similar to spinach when cooked. Young plants were harvested by Native Americans and used as a cooked plant in spring when other food plants were scarce. Soaking stinging nettles in water or cooking removes the stinging chemicals from the plant, which allows them to be handled and eaten without injury. After the stinging nettle enters its flowering and seed-setting stages, the leaves develop gritty particles called cystoliths, which can irritate the kidneys and urinary tract.  Cystoliths are made of calcium carbonate, and will not dissolve when boiled.  Leaves harvested post-flowering must have their cystoliths broken down by acid, as in the fermentation process. In its peak season, nettle contains up to 25% protein, dry weight, which is high for a leafy green vegetable. The leaves are also dried and may then be used to make a herbal tea, as can also be done with the nettle's flowers.
Nettles can be used in a variety of recipes, such as polenta, pesto, and purée. Nettle soup is a common use of the plant, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe.
Nettles are sometimes used in cheesemaking, such as for Cornish Yarg and as a flavouring in varieties of Gouda.
Nettles are used in Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Hercegovina as part of the dough filling for the börek pastry. The top baby leaves are selected and simmered, and then mixed with other ingredients such as herbs and rice, before being used as a filling between dough layers. Similarly, in Greece the tender leaves are often used, after simmering, as a filling for hortopita, which is similar to spanakopita, but with wild greens rather than spinach for filling.
Young nettles can also be used to make an alcoholic drink.


In the UK, an annual World Nettle Eating Championship draws thousands of people to Dorset, where competitors attempt to eat as much of the raw plant as possible. Competitors are given 60 cm (24 in) stalks of the plant, from which they strip the leaves and eat them. Whoever strips and eats the most stinging nettle leaves in a fixed time is the winner. The competition dates back to 1986, when two neighbouring farmers attempted to settle a dispute about which had the worst infestation of nettles, and one of them said, "I'll eat any nettle of yours that's longer than mine."


As Old English stiðe, nettle is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in 10th century traditional medicine. Nettle was believed to be a galactagogue – a substance that promotes lactation. Urtication, or flogging with nettles is the process of deliberately applying stinging nettles to the skin to provoke inflammation. An agent thus used was considered to be a rubefacient (something that causes redness), used as a folk remedy for treating rheumatism.


In indigenous justice systems in Ecuador, urtication was used as punishment for severe crimes in 2010. The sentenced perpetrator of a crime was flogged with stinging nettle, in public, naked, whilst being showered with freezing cold water.


Fresh leaves contain approximately 82.4% water, 17.6% dry matter, 5.5% protein, 0.7 to 3.3% fat, and 7.1% carbohydrates. Mature leaves contain about 40% α- linolenic acid, a valuable omega-3 acid. For exact fatty acid contents see Table 1. Seeds contain much more fatty acid than leaves.
Minerals (Ca, K, Mg, P, Si, S, Cl) and trace elements (Ti, 80 ppm, Mn, Cu, Fe) contents depend mostly on the soil and the season.
Carotenoids can be found primarily in the leaves, where different forms of lutein, xanthophyll and carotene are present (Table 2). Some carotenes are precursors of vitamin A (retinol), their retinol equivalents RE or retinol activity equivalents per g dry weight are 1.33 for mature leaves and 0.9 for young leaves. Nettle contains much less carotenes and retinol than carrots, which contain 8.35 RE per g fresh weight. Depending on the batch and the leave and stem content, nettle contains only traces of zeaxanthin or between 20–60 mg/kg of dry matter. Nettle contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C), riboflavin (vitamin B₂), pantothenic acid, vitamin K₁ and tocopherols (vitamin E). The highest vitamin contents can be found in the leaves.


Nettles have a number of other uses in the vegetable garden, including the potential for encouraging beneficial insects. Since nettles prefer to grow in phosphorus-rich and nitrogen rich soils that have recently been disturbed (and thus aerated), the growth of nettles is an indicator that an area has high fertility (especially phosphate and nitrate), and thus is an indicator to gardeners as to the quality of the soil.
Nettles contain nitrogenous compounds, so are used as a compost activator or can be used to make a liquid fertilizer, which although low in phosphate, is useful in supplying magnesium, sulphur, and iron. They are also one of the few plants that can tolerate, and flourish in, soils rich in poultry droppings.
The stinging nettle is the red admiral caterpillar's primary host plant and can attract migrating red admiral butterflies to a garden. U. dioica can be a troubling weed, and mowing can increase plant density. Regular and persistent tilling will greatly reduce its numbers, and the use of herbicides such as 2,4-D and glyphosate are effective control measures.


Unlike the perennial and dioecious stinging nettle Urtica dioica, Urtica urens is an annual plant, monoecious (with male and female flowers on the same plant) and generally much shorter. It can be distinguished from the stinging nettle by its more rounded leaves with coarser, deeper toothing and with the terminal tooth of similar length to the adjacent teeth. The lower leaves are shorter than their longer petioles and have stinging hairs only.


The native distribution of Urtica urens includes most of Europe except the British Isles, northern Asia, north and north-west Africa.
In the British Isles, Urtica urens is an archaeophyte, an ancient introduction. It has been introduced to all other continents of the world except Antarctica.


In Europe, Urtica urens is one of the food plants of the small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae).  In New Zealand it is also a food plant for the New Zealand red admiral butterfly (Bassaris gonerilla, syn. Vanessa gonerilla, syn. Papilio gonerilla), and the Australian / New Zealand yellow admiral butterfly (Vanessa itea).


Usnea rubicunda, commonly known as the red beard lichen, is a type of arboreal lichen native to temperate regions in North, Central and South America, as well as Europe, Eastern Asia, and North Africa. This fruticose species forms hair-like hanging clusters that are orange to red in color. It is at risk of extirpation in Canada.


Usnea strigosa, commonly known as bushy beard lichen, is a fruticose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.


Usnea strigosa has worldwide distribution.  It is a common tree lichen in Eastern and Southeastern North America.


This lichen is fruticose with 2 to 5 cm long branches and abundant terminal apothecia about 5 mm wide.


Usnea strigosa has three recognized subspecies, major,  rubiginea, and strigosa.  There are also several chemotypes, bringing the current taxonomy into doubt.


Usnea strigosa grows on trees.  The most frequent hosts of this lichen are oak trees.  The photosynthetic symbionts of Usnea species are Chlorophyta green algae.


Utetheisa ornatrix is found from southeastern United States to South America (southeast Brazil). In the southeastern United States, its distribution ranges from Connecticut westward to southeastern Nebraska and southward to southern New Mexico and Florida. This species is found to be more common in more tropical parts of this range, in accordance to the availability of its host plant in more southern regions. It is also found throughout Mexico, South America, and Central America.


In 1758, Carl Linnaeus first characterized two species of the genus Phalaena. Phalaena ornatrix was used to describe the paler moth specimens, and Utetheisa bella, described the bright pink moth specimens. In 1819, Hübner moved these species to a new genus, Utetheisa.  For nearly a century, it was difficult to determine this moth's evolutionary history as researchers focused on external similarities (color, shape, patterns, size), rather than determining features specific to the species. This led to great confusion when trying to categorize the different subspecies. In 1960, Forbes combined both species, Utetheisa ornatrix and Utetheisa bella, into the species now known as Utetheisa ornatrix. His conclusion was also supported by Pease Jr. who, in 1966, used genetic testing and determined that any phenotypic differences were based on interspecific variation due to geographic differences (rather than intraspecific variation).


Utetheisa ornatrix ornatrix
Utetheisa ornatrix bella (Linnaeus, 1758)
Utetheisa ornatrix saintcroixensis Pease, 1973


The eggs of the Utetheisa ornatrix are spherical in shape and range in colour from white to yellow to sometimes brown.


The larvae are orange and brown with irregular black bands on each segment of the body. The anterior and posterior portions of the black binds are also marked with distinct white spots. Full grown larvae reach 30-35mm in length. Although most arctiid larvae have verrucae, Utetheisa ornatrix larvae lack these.


The pupae are mostly black marked with irregular orange and brown bands. Usually, the pupae are covered with a loose layer of silk, but not


These moths are aposematic and use their bright coloration to warn predators of their unpalatability. Their wings range in color from yellow, red, pink, and orange to white.  Wings contain white bands containing irregularly spaced black spots. The hind wings can be bright pink with a marginal black band. The adult Utetheisa ornatrix has a wingspan of 33-46mm.


On occasion, bella moth caterpillars cannibalize other eggs, pupae or larvae from the same species.  Since PAs are a limited resource, some caterpillars do not reach optimal levels and resort to cannibalism.  This behavior is a consequence of PA deficiency rather than hunger, since deficits in alkaloids are the main cause of mortality. Pupae cannibalism is rare because larvae normally pupate far away from the plant where they feed.  Egg cannibalism is also rare because eggs provide larvae with very small quantities of PAs and because eggs from the same cluster hatch synchronously.  Larvae may also feed on other bella moth larvae that are laden with alkaloids. This is more common since feeding on one single larva is sufficient to compensate for the cannibalistic caterpillar's alkaloid deficiency.


Courtship begins at dusk. Stationary females release a sexual pheromone that lures males. They emit these chemicals in short pulses to provide close-range orientation cues to male moths as they seek out the females. When a male reaches a female, he flutters around her and thrusts two peculiar tufts of scales from his coremata, two yellow spherical structures by the male's genital organs. By doing so, the male emits a specific scent from his coremata that is attributed to a hormone, hydroxydanaidal.  After receiving the scent, the female proceeds to mating.
copulation lasts for up to 12 hours.  It takes the male about two hours to transfer the spermatophore containing all of the sperm and nutrients he is going to offer to the female. The remaining hours of copulation are exclusively used for alkaloid transfer. These alkaloids distribute themselves evenly around the female body, even the wings, and offer her great protection as they render her unpalatable to most predators. Eventually, the female allocates about one third of the alkaloids she receives to her ovaries, where they will be used to confer protection to the eggs.


Bella moth mating behavior is exceptional in that females compete with other females to obtain more males, as opposed to males competing with males.  As in many other moth species, females release sexual pheromones that males can detect over long distances.  However, in most species, females do not interact with one another during pheromone release. Female bella moths are unique in that females from the same family often engage in collective pheromone release termed “female pheromonal chorusing”.
This phenomenon is a consequence of a female-biased operational sex ratio. This means that at any given time, there are more females than males seeking to copulate. This occurs because males lose up to 11% of their body mass during mating and once they are done mating, they need time to sequester resources that will allow them to deliver a spermatophore to the next female they mate with. On the contrary, females do not need time to prepare for their next copulation. Due to the unequal mating rates, males become valuable to females and female-to-female competition rises dramatically as a consequence.
Engaging in pheromonal chorusing allows females to increase the attractiveness of genetic relatives and increase their indirect fitness. Females may also, but less frequently, engage in female chorusing with unrelated females. It has been suggested that chorusing is still beneficial under these circumstances, because cooperation for pheromone release may increase the attractiveness of the entire group and increase each moth's individual fitness.  It has been experimentally shown that when females detect other female pheromones they increase the rate of pheromone release and call for longer periods of time. Such observations support the hypothesis that females cooperate with one another to increase mating success.


After copulating with several males, rival sperm carried by a female do not compete directly for access to the eggs.  Females direct a postcopulatory selective process where they choose male sperm based on the intensity of the courtship pheromone that was released prior to copulation, hydroxydanaidal (HD). The intensity of this signal is directly proportional to the amount of alkaloids sequestered by the moth during the larval stages. As a consequence, this pheromone is an indirect indicator of success during larval development and will ultimately determine which sperm will be passed on to the offspring. Once they have selected a male, females use their musculature to channel the selected sperm through the chambers and constructs of their reproductive systems to their eggs.


The eggs of the bella moth contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) that the mother delivers. The alkaloid is stored during the larval stages and retained through metamorphosis, protecting both larvae and adults from predators.  Female moths receive alkaloids from the males at the time of mating as part of the spermatophore. Although the male's contribution of PAs is less than that of the female, it still contributes significantly to egg protection.


The spermatophore that males give to the females when mating contains sperm, nutrients, and pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA), and accounts for up to 11% of the male's body mass. PA plays an important role in preventing predation in Utetheisa ornatrix because it is poisonous to most organisms. Males transmit PA to the females via a sperm package; the females then give this mating gift to the eggs, along with their own alkaloidal supplement and is utilized to protect the offspring from predation. In addition, females also personally benefit from the gift through protection and nutrition. After mating with a PA-rich male, the received PA is quickly allocated to all body parts. As a result, females become and remain unacceptable as prey to numerous organisms such as spiders. Another problem that females face is the risk of incurring a PA deficit due to the large amount of eggs they lay. Spermatophores is one way for females to compensate for this loss in PA.


Plants of the genus Crotalaria are the major hosts for the Utetheisa ornatrix, although a variety of plants in the family Fabaceae have also been cited in literature. The word Crotalaria originates from the Greek root “crotal,” which means “a rattle” and is characteristic of the pods found on these plants. The Crotalaria host plants contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which are used by the Utetheisa ornatrix to repel predators. Specific host plants used include:
Crotalaria avonensis (Avon Park rattlebox)
Crotalaria rotundifolia (rabbitbells)
Crotalaria lanceolata
Crotalaria pallida (smooth rattlebox)
Crotalaria spectabilis (showy rattlebox)
Crotalaria retusa


Utricularia cornuta, the horned bladderwort, is a small to medium-sized, probably perennial carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. U. cornuta is endemic to North America and can be found in the Bahamas, Cuba, Canada, and the United States. It grows as a terrestrial or subaquatic plant in marshes, swamps, and pools in shallow waters, mostly at lower altitudes. It was originally described and published by André Michaux in 1803.


Utricularia gibba, commonly known as the humped or floating bladderwort, is a small, mat-forming species of carnivorous aquatic bladderwort. It is found on all continents except Antarctica.
U. gibba has an exceptionally small genome for a plant, despite having a typical number of genes.  The sequencing of its DNA revealed only 3% non-coding material.


Utricularia gibba is an aquatic carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia, or bladderworts. The specific epithet gibba is Latin for "hump" or "swelling" – a reference to the inflated base of the lower lip of the corolla. It is a small- to medium-sized aquatic plant that can either be affixed to the substrate in shallow water or free-floating in the water column, however it will likely flower more if supported by a substrate beneath shallow water. It forms mats of criss-crossing, branching, thread-like stolons, each growing to approximately 20 cm (8 in) long or longer and 0.2–1 mm thick. What are sometime described as leaves or leaf-like organs – the actual distinction is difficult in the reduced morphology – are numerous and scattered along the length of the stolons and are 0.5–1.5 cm (0.2–0.6 in) long with a very short dichotomous branching pattern toward the tip of anywhere from one to eight branches but usually not more than four. The bladder traps take the place of some of these distal branches on the leaf-like structures. The traps are ovoid and are attached to the leaf-like structure by a short stalk; each trap is 1–2.5 mm long and has two primary setiform branched appendages on top and some smaller appendages surrounded the entrance to the trap. The appendages are the trigger that sets the trap off and vacuums the prey that touched it into the bladder to be digested.
Inflorescences are erect and typically emerge from the water to about 20 cm (8 in) tall, though in some cases they can be submerged and produce cleistogamous flowers. Inflorescences can produce anywhere from one to twelve flowers but it is unusual to see anything other than  two to six flowers per inflorescence. Individual flowers are yellow, often with reddish-brown nerves, and are split into two lips: the upper lip is almost circular and weakly separated into three lobes while the lower lip is slightly smaller, also circular, and has a rounded, bilobed swelling in the center. The spur is narrowly conical or cylindrical and curves down below the flower, varying in length from being just shorter than to noticeably longer than the lower lip. Utricularia gibba will flower throughout the year whenever conditions are favorable. Flowers, specifically the corolla, vary in size across this species' large distribution from 0.8 to 1.5 cm (0.3 to 0.6 in).
The diploid chromosome number for U. gibba is 2n = 28.


Utricularia gibba has a vast geographic range and is native to the eastern United States, southeastern Canada, Central America, the Caribbean, the western Mediterranean, Southern Africa and southern India. It is considered an invasive species in Hawai'i, Australia, Japan, Brazil, New Zealand, Singapore, Serbia, Hungary and the United Kingdom.
It grows in ponds and lakes or shallow water in ditches, pools, bogs, swamps, and marshes that may be still or slowly flowing. It can sometimes be found growing in deep water but will not flower unless the inflorescences are supported near the surface by living or dead vegetation. The waters in which it grows are typically poor in available phosphorus and nitrogen.


In 2013, the genome of U. gibba was sequenced.  At only 82 megabases, the genome is exceptionally small for a multicellular plant and the main difference between other plant genomes and that of U. gibba is a drastic reduction in non-coding DNA. The discovery casts doubt on the idea that repetitive, non-coding DNA, popularly known as junk DNA, is necessary for life.
Utricularia gibba and the tomato split from a common ancestor approximately 87 million years ago. Since that time, both plants have experienced episodes of whole genome duplication (WGD) in which the plants' DNA content doubled in size.Since then, it has lost most unneeded DNA, unlike the tomato, and now has a genome only a tenth as long as the tomato's.
Compared to Arabidopsis, the introns of Utricularia gibba are somewhat fewer in number per gene, and conserved cis-acting elements of its promoters are compressed. Most critical genes have returned to single copy status. However, the mitochondrial and plastid genomes of U. gibba do not appear to be compressed relative to those of other angiosperms. The compression of its nuclear DNA is thought to have occurred via both numerous microdeletions and some large-scale recombinant deletions. The presence of numerous GC-rich sequences throughout the nuclear genome of U. gibba is considered to have created a molecular mechanistic bias in favor of deletions, but this does not preclude the presence of a selection pressure to preserve such deletions.
Trap formation is induced in U. gibba by low phosphorus but not low nitrogen, indicating that phosphorus availability is more limiting in its environment. It had also been previously proposed that an increased mutation rate due to greater environmental mutagen exposure could have increased natural selection for loss of unneeded DNA, but no evidence for this was found in the relative mutational diversities of U. gibba and Arabidopsis.
It is possible that the genome duplication events and low-phosphorus environment acted in concert with one another: that the three whole genome duplications that occurred in U. gibba enabled the selective pressure of a phosphorus poor environment to reduce total DNA without the deletion of important genes.


Utricularia gibba has the reputation of being one of the easier aquatic bladderworts to grow, often being described as a weed in cultivation. In his 1998 book The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants, Peter D'Amato advised that successful cultivation could be achieved with U. gibba floating in a small cup or bowl, within waterlogged peat, or even among the water-filled trays of other plants. It can also easily be grown in aquaria.


Utricularia intermedia, the flatleaf bladderwort or intermediate bladderwort is a small, perennial carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. It is usually found affixed to the substrate but it can also survive suspended in a body of water. U. intermedia is a circumboreal species and is found in North America, Asia, and Europe.


Utricularia purpurea, the eastern purple bladderwort, is a medium-sized suspended aquatic carnivorous plant that belongs to the genus Utricularia. U. purpurea is endemic to North and Central America. It has been suggested that U. purpurea may have partially lost its appetite for carnivory. Richards (2001) did an extensive study in the field on it and noted that trapping rates of the usual Utricularia prey were significantly lower than in other species in the genus. Richards concludes that this species can still trap and digest arthropod prey in its specialized bladder traps, but does so sparingly. Instead, it harbors a community of algae, zooplankton, and debris in the bladders that indicates U. purpurea favors a mutualistic interaction in place of a predator–prey relationship.


Growing to 75 cm (30 in) tall by 30 cm (12 in) broad, it is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial with pendent leaves which are hairy on the undersides. It blooms in mid- to late spring, producing large yellow, solitary or paired, bell-shaped, pendent flowers. The top parts of the plant tend to bend downward due to the weight of the leaves and flowers. The light green stems are round, glabrous, and glaucous and the leaves are perfoliate since the stem appears to come through the leaves at the base. In late summer three capsuled ovaries split open releasing seeds that have attached food bodies called (elaiosome) which are attractive to ants that collect and redistribution the seeds.
The Latin specific epithet grandiflora means "large flowered".
This plant differs from Uvularia sessilifolia in that the leaves of the latter grow from the stem and its flowers are smaller. U. grandiflora also differs from Uvularia perfoliata, which occurs in eastern North America. The latter has similar large perfoliate leaves, but the flowers have orange-colored bumps on the petals.


The native range of Uvularia grandiflora extends from the Appalachians west to the Dakotas, Kansas and Oklahoma, from Louisiana and Georgia in the South to Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec in Canada. So, it is widespread across the eastern mountains, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley. There are also isolated populations along Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.


Uvularia grandiflora is a woodland species found in open shade in rich moist woods with calcareous to neutral soils.
Bumblebees, mason bees, halictid bees, and andrenid bees feed from the nectar and collect pollen from the flowers. Deer love to eat these plants.


The plant is listed as endangered in New Hampshire and Connecticut.


The Menominee use this plant for swellings. The Ojibwa are documented to use the root for pain in the solar plexus, which may refer to pleurisy. The Potawatomi mix an infusion of the root mixed with lard and use it as salve to massage sore muscles and tendons.


In cultivation in the UK Uvularia grandiflora has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. There exists a cultivar 'Pallida' with paler coloured flowers.


Uvularia perfoliata, the perfoliate bellwort, is a perennial forb native to the eastern United States and Canada, which produces pale yellow flowers in spring.


The smooth slender stem of Uvularia perfoliata is 15 to 50 centimeters tall, and forked above the middle. The leaves are obovate, 4 to 12 centimeters long and 1.5 to 4 centimeters wide, glabrous or glaucous, and perfoliate. There are usually 1 to 4 leaves below the fork in the stem. The stems bear a single downward drooping flower with six 2 to 3.5 centimeter long tepals which are granular on the inside. The fruit is a triangular three lobed capsule 7 to 13 millimeters in length.


Uvularia perfoliata is widely distributed in the eastern and southern United States from Texas to New Hampshire, plus the Canadian province of Ontario. It is listed as an endangered species by the states of Indiana and New Hampshire. In Virginia, it grows in habitats such as floodplain forests, but also mesic upland forests, and dry rocky woodlands. The presence of this species is dependent on appropriate habitat, and it may be eliminated from an area by development, changes in land use, or competition with invasive species.


This species is a member of the genus Uvularia, which was formerly placed in the family Liliaceae, but has more recently been placed in the family Colchicaceae, in keeping with the findings of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group.


Vaccinium angustifolium, commonly known as the wild lowbush blueberry, is a species of blueberry native to eastern and central Canada (from Manitoba to Newfoundland) and the northeastern United States, growing as far south as the Great Smoky Mountains and west to the Great Lakes region.


The species epithet angustifolium is a combination of the Latin words angustum meaning 'narrow', and folium meaning 'leaf'. It shares this epithet with other species of plants including Epilobium angustifolium and Lavandula angustifolia.


Vaccinium angustifolium is a low spreading deciduous shrub growing 5 to 60 cm (2 to 24 in) tall. Its rhizomes can lay dormant up to 100 years, and when given the adequate amount of sunlight, soil moisture, and oxygen content they will sprout. The leaves are glossy blue-green in summer, turning a variety of reds in the fall. The leaf shape is broad to elliptical. Buds are brownish red in stem axils. The flowers are white, bell-shaped, 4 to 6 mm (0.16 to 0.24 in) long. The fruit is a small sweet dark blue to black berry, full of antioxidants and flavonoids. This plant grows best in wooded areas, old abandoned farmyards or open areas with well-drained acidic soils. In some areas it produces natural blueberry barrens, where it is practically the only species covering large areas.
Several buds may be on a healthy stem, and each bud can open up and have several blossoms. A blueberry field that has full plant coverage can have as many as 150 million blossoms per acre.
The Vaccinium angustifolium plant is fire-tolerant, and its numbers often increase in an area following a forest fire. Traditionally, blueberry growers burn their fields every few years to eliminate shrubs and fertilize the soil. In Acadian French, a blueberry field is known as a brûlis (from brûlé 'burnt') because of that technique, which is still in use.


The lowbush blueberry is native to Canada, Maine, and Massachusetts and also grown commercially there, mainly harvested from managed wild patches. It is also a favorite of recreational berry pickers, black bears, coyotes, racoons, foxes, porcupines, white-tailed deer and birds. To help keep the unwanted individuals out of the blueberry fields and from damaging or eating the crop, growers will fence their fields and connect power or use an automated surround sound speaker system called a bird squawker. This bird squawker is set up on a timer system to send out predator bird sounds during the day, and at night, the system can be programmed to discourage nighttime crop feeders.
While eating blueberries, black bears roll around and damage the surrounding crop. They forage on the berries from daylight to dark.
Its leaves are also popular among caterpillars. It is a larval host to the pale tiger moth, the peppered moth, the chain-dotted geometer, the saw-wing moth, the blueberry gray moth, the mousy angle moth, Caloptilia vacciniella, Andromeda underwing, the shadowy arches, the two-spot dart, the dingy cutworm moth, the speckled cutworm, the decorated owlet, the pirate looper, Norman's dart, the gray swordgrass moth, the pink-edged sulphur butterfly, the pawpaw sphinx moth, and the blueberry leaftier moth.


Roughly 90% of wild low bush blueberries are sold IQF (Individual Quick Frozen). Some berries are fresh-packed during harvest season and sold at farm markets and grocery stores. There is 100% pure wild blueberry juice on the market. The fruit can be used to make a wide variety of food products such as blueberry smoothies, blueberry sauce for waffles, blueberry grunt, blueberry lemon loaf, blueberry crisp, blueberry muffins, blueberry jam, blueberry martinis. It can be used for a topping on cereal or yogurt.
Nova Scotia wild blueberries are exported to the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and other countries.


Wild blueberries are a good source of Vitamin C and dietary fiber. They contain no fat, sodium, or cholesterol and are only 80 calories per cup of berries. Recent studies have shown that the pigments in the berries' skin can provide health benefits to the consumer. These pigments are called anthocyanins which contain antioxidants. The antioxidants in the berry help to fight compounds called free radicals, which can cause cancer, heart disease, other diseases, and premature aging. In a USDA study, wild blueberries were found to have the highest level of antioxidants out of 40 fruits and vegetables.
Tannins, which are found in wild blueberries and cranberries, can prevent the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections from attaching to the bladder and urinary tract wall, thus allowing them to pass through the body without causing any harm.


The lowbush blueberry is the state fruit of Maine, and the wild low bush blueberry is also the Nova Scotian Provincial Berry. Oxford, Nova Scotia is nicknamed "Wild Blueberry Capital of Canada."


Vaccinium arboreum (sparkleberry or farkleberry) is a species of Vaccinium native to the southeastern and south-central United States, from southern Virginia west to southeastern Nebraska, south to Florida and eastern Texas, and north to Illinois.


Vaccinium arboreum is a shrub (rarely a small tree) growing to 3–5 m (7.5-12.5 feet) rarely 9 m) (22.5 feet) tall, with a diameter at breast height of up to 35 cm (14 inches). The leaves are evergreen in the south of the range, but deciduous further north where winters are colder; they are oval-elliptic with an acute apex, 3–7 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with a smooth or very finely toothed margin. Sparkleberry grows on sand dunes, hammocks, dry hillsides, meadows, and in rocky woods. It also grows on a variety of moist sites such as wet bottomlands and along creek banks.
The flowers are white, bell-shaped, and 3–4 mm (0.12-0.16 inches) in diameter with a five-lobed corolla, produced in racemes up to 5 cm (2 inches) long. The fruit is a round dry berry about 6 mm (0.24 inches) in diameter, green at first, black when ripe, edible but bitter and tough. They are eaten by various wildlife.


Vaccinium corymbosum, the northern highbush blueberry, is a North American species of blueberry which has become a food crop of significant economic importance. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern and southern United States, from Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south as far as Florida and eastern Texas. It is also naturalized in other places: Europe, Japan, New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest of North America, etc. Other common names include blue huckleberry, tall huckleberry, swamp huckleberry, high blueberry, and swamp blueberry.


Vaccinium corymbosum is a deciduous shrub growing to 6–12 feet (1.8–3.7 m) tall and wide. It is often found in dense thickets. The dark glossy green leaves are elliptical and up to 2 inches (5 cm) long. In autumn, the leaves turn to a brilliant red, orange, yellow, and/or purple.
The flowers are long bell- or urn-shaped white to very light pink, 1⁄3 of an inch (8.5 mm) long.
The fruit is a 1⁄4-to-1⁄2-inch (6.4 to 12.7 mm) diameter blue-black berry. This plant is found in wooded or open areas with moist acidic soils.
The species is tetraploid and does not self-pollinate. Most cultivars have a chilling requirement greater than 800 hours.


In natural habitats, the berries are a food source for native and migrating birds, bears, and small mammals. The foliage is browsed by deer and rabbits.
The berries were collected and used in Native American cuisine in areas where Vaccinium corymbosum grew as a native plant.


Vaccinium corymbosum is the most common commercially grown blueberry in present-day North America.
It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant for home and wildlife gardens and natural landscaping projects. The pH must be very acidic (4.5 to 5.5).


Some named Southern highbush blueberry are hybridized forms derived from crosses between V. corymbosum and  Vaccinium darrowii, a native of the Southeastern U.S. These hybrids and other cultivars of V. darrowii (Southern highbush blueberry) have been developed for cultivation in warm southern and western regions of North America.


Vaccinium myrtilloides is a shrub with common names including common blueberry, velvetleaf huckleberry, velvetleaf blueberry, Canadian blueberry, and sourtop blueberry. It is common in much of North America, reported from all 10 Canadian provinces plus Nunavut and Northwest Territories, as well as from the northeastern and Great Lakes states in the United States. It is also known to occur in Montana and Washington.


Vaccinium myrtilloides is a low spreading deciduous shrub growing up to 50 cm (20 inches) tall, often spreading to form small thickets. The leaves are bright green, paler underneath with velvety hairs. The flowers are white, bell-shaped, 5 mm (0.2 inches) long. The fruit is a small sweet bright blue to dark blue berry. Young stems have stiff dense bristly hairs.
Vaccinium myrtilloides grows best in open coniferous woods with dry loose acidic soils; it is also found in forested bogs and rocky areas. It is fire-tolerant and is often abundant following forest fires or clear-cut logging. Vaccinium myrtilloides hybridizes in the wild with Vaccinium angustifolium (lowbush blueberry).


Vaccinium myrtilloides is also cultivated and grown commercially in Canada and Maine, mainly harvested from managed wild patches. Vaccinium myrtilloides is one of the sweetest blueberries known.
It is also an important food source for black bears, deer, small mammals, and birds.


This species is listed as endangered in Indiana and Connecticut, as threatened in Iowa and Ohio, and as sensitive in Washington (state).


The Abenaki consume the fruit as part of their traditional diet. The Nihithawak Cree eat the berries raw, make them into jam and eat it with fish and bannock, and boil or pound the sun-dried berries into pemmican. The Hesquiaht First Nation make pies and preserves from the berries. The Hoh and Quileute consume the fruit raw, stew the berries and make them into a sauce, and can the berries and use them as a winter food. The Ojibwa make use of the berries, gathering and selling them, eating them fresh, sun drying and canning them for future use. The Nlaka'pamux make the berries into pies. The Algonquin people gather the fruit to eat and sell. The berries are part of Potawatomi traditional cuisine, and are eaten fresh, dried, and canned.


The Nihithawak Cree use a decoction of leafy stems used to bring menstruation and prevent pregnancy, to make a person sweat, to slow excessive menstrual bleeding, to bring blood after childbirth, and to prevent miscarriage. The Potawatomi also use the root bark of the plant for an unspecified ailment.


The Nihithawak Cree use the berries to dye porcupine quills.


Vaccinium myrtillus  or European blueberry is a holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortleberry to distinguish it from other Vaccinium relatives.


Vaccinium myrtillus is a holarctic species native to Continental Northern Europe, the British Isles and Ireland, northern Asia, Japan, Greenland, Iceland, Western Canada, and the Western United States. It occurs in the acidic soils of heaths, boggy barrens, degraded meadows, open forests and parklands, hummocky seepage slopes, and moraines.


Regional names include blaeberry (Scotland), urts or hurts (Cornwall and Devon), hurtleberry, myrtleberry, wimberry, whinberry, winberry, and fraughan.


Vaccinium myrtillus has been used for centuries in traditional medicine. Vaccinium myrtillus fruits have been used in traditional Austrian medicine internally (directly or as tea or liqueur) for treatment of disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and diabetes. Herbal supplements of V. myrtillus (bilberry) on the market are used for cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, as vision aids, and to treat diarrhea and other conditions.  Researchers are interested in bilberry because of its high concentrations of anthocyanins, which are under study for their potential biological effects. The United States National Institutes of Health stated, "There's not enough scientific evidence to support the use of bilberry for any health conditions."
In cooking, the bilberry fruit is commonly used for the same purposes as the American blueberry, such as filling for pies, tarts and flans, cakes, jams, muffins, cookies, sauces, syrups, juices, and candies.


In traditional medicine, bilberry leaf were used for treating mainly skin disorders.


Although bilberries are in high demand by consumers in northern Europe, the berries are harvested in the wild without any cultivation. Some authors state that opportunities exist to improve the crop if cultivated using common agricultural practices.


Since many people refer to "blueberries" whether they intend to refer to the bilberry (European blueberry) Vaccinium myrtillus or the American blueberries Vaccinium corymbosum, there is confusion about the two closely similar fruits. For instance, in the Scandinavian languages, Vaccinium myrtillus and other bilberries are called blåbär (or blåbær), which literally means blueberry.
One can distinguish the European species from their American counterpart by the following differences:
European blueberries have dark red, strongly fragrant flesh and red juice that turns blue in basic environments; American blueberries have white or translucent, mildly fragrant flesh
European blueberries grow on low bushes with solitary fruits, and are found wild in heathland in the Northern Hemisphere; American blueberries grow on large bushes with the fruit in bunches
European blueberries are usually harvested from wild plants, while the American counterpart is usually cultivated and are widely available commercially
cultivated American blueberries often come from hybrid cultivars, developed about 100 years ago by agricultural specialists, most prominently Elizabeth Coleman White, to meet growing consumer demand; the bushes grow taller and are easier to harvest
bilberry fruit will stain hands, teeth and tongue deep blue or purple while eating (it was used as a dye for food and clothes), while American blueberries have flesh of a less intense color, and are thus less staining
when cooked as a dessert, European blueberries have a much stronger, more tart flavor and a rougher texture than American blueberries.


Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate northern hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.


This cranberry is a small, prostrate shrub with vine-like stems that root at the nodes. The leaves are leathery and lance-shaped, up to 1 cm (0.39 in) long. Flowers arise on nodding stalks a few centimeters tall. The corolla is white or pink and flexed backward away from the center of the flower. The fruit is a red berry which has spots when young. It measures up to 1.2 cm (0.47 in) wide. The plant forms associations with mycorrhizae. It mainly reproduces vegetatively.


Vaccinium oxycoccos is a widespread and common species occurring broadly across cooler climates in the temperate northern hemisphere. It is an indicator of moist to wet soils which are low in nitrogen and have a high water table. It is an indicator of coniferous swamps. It grows in bogs and fens in moist forest habitat. It grows on peat which may be saturated most of the time. The soil in bogs is acidic and low in nutrients. The plant's mycorrhizae help it obtain nutrients in this situation. Fens have somewhat less acidic soil, which is also higher in nutrients. The plant can often be found growing on hummocks of Sphagnum mosses.


In North America, other species found in this forest understory habitat include leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), bog rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla), bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia), pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea), Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum), cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus), rhodora (Rhododendron canadense), glossy buckthorn (Rhamnus frangula), sundew (Drosera spp.), cottonsedge (Eriophorum virginatum and E. angustifolium), and species of sedge and lichen. The plant easily colonizes bog habitat that has recently burned. It survives fire with its underground rhizomes.


The berries of Vaccinium oxycoccos are edible and have been used both as a medicine and as a food by various Native American communities. Some Iñupiat cook the cranberry with fish eggs and blubber.


Vaccinium parvifolium, the red huckleberry, is a species of Vaccinium native to western North America.


It is a deciduous shrub growing to 4 metres (13 feet) tall with bright green shoots with an angular cross-section. The leaves are ovate to oblong-elliptic, 9 to 30 millimetres (1⁄4 to 1+1⁄4 inches) long, and 4 to 16 mm (1⁄8 to 5⁄8 in) wide, with an entire margin.
The flowers are yellow-white to pinkish-white with pink, decumbent bell-shaped 4 to 5 mm (3⁄16 to 3⁄16 in) long.
The fruit is an edible red to orange berry 6 to 10 mm (1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in) in diameter.


It is common in forests from southeastern Alaska and British Columbia south through western Washington and Oregon to central California.
In the Oregon Coast Range, it is the most common Vaccinium. It occurs mostly at low to middle elevations in soil enriched by decaying wood and on rotten logs, from sea level up to an altitude of 1,820 m (6,000 ft).