Blue, Purple, and Healthy

Blueberries are flowering plants, whose height range from 10 centimeters to 4 metres. They can be aptly described as prostate shrubs. These plants or shrubs produce berries, which teem with health benefits.

These berries are also known as blueberries. The colour of these berries graduate from pale greenish (their colour at the initial stage) to reddish-purple, and finally, their colour varies from dark blue to purple when they get ripe. On maturation, they acquire a sweet taste. They also have acidity. The size of these berries varies from 5-16 millimeters in diameter.

Blueberries are native to North America, though they are now commercially cultivated across 27 countries. Centuries before the European colonists arrived in North America, the natives of North America knew several applications of this healthy and delicious fruit. They knew how to mix blueberry with honey, cornmeal and water to make blueberry pudding, which was known as sautauthig. The juice of the blueberry fruit was used to make cough syrup. According to a portal, dried blueberries were used in soups and stews also and used as a rub for meat by the Native Americans.

High-bush and Low-bush

Blueberry fruits can be cultivated or could be picked from semi-wild or wild bushes. Blueberries can be broadly demarcated into two classifications. There are berries from high-bush blueberry plants and low-bush blueberry plants. High-bush blueberries pertain to cultivated blueberry plants, which were evolved from the wild variety during the first half of the 20th century.

Low-bush blueberries are also known as wild blueberry plants. Berries from both high-bush blueberries and low-bush blueberries are used in the commercial production. However, berries from high-bush blueberry plants are more suitable for retail markets, as they are larger and less perishable than the blueberries from low-bush blueberry plants. No wonder, most blueberries that are cultivated today are of the high-bush variety. Blueberries of lowbush varieties are richer than blueberries of high-bush varieties in terms of certain antioxidants.

Geography of Blueberries