It is a low-growing shrub, from one to three feet tall. The small stiff oval leaves are very resinous and feel sticky when pinched. The Highbush, the Lowbush and the Canada Blueberries are also found in a few places near Chicago. These reach their greatest abundance and importance in the other states and the Canadian provinces around the Great Lakes, and in New England. Six wild species are marketed commercially.
All kinds require an acid soil.
The highbush blueberry grows in swamps and woodlands and may exceed 15 feet in height. The lowbush and Canada are upland species averaging about a foot high. In nature, the seeds of these low blueberries are spread by birds, mammals and various other ways. They are so variable that no two plants originating from seed are exactly alike. A few attempts have been made to cultivate them but most lowbush blueberry land receives little care except for systematic burning, every third year, which prevents a crop that year but destroys the weeds and the insect pests such as the blueberry maggot.