In boundless Russian forests such variety of herbs and berries that in them necessarily it is possible to get confused. Is known of some berries much while others are known to the majority only by hearsay, and know about differences of blueberry and bilberry in general units.
Stranger blueberry
As practice shows, the ordinary consumer meets blueberry berries much less than with more widespread and popular bilberry. This unpretentious plant represents a bush to 80 cm in height which can creep on the ground. Branches its treelike, the leaflets extended, up to 3 cm in size. Blueberry small pink or white fragrant flowers blossoms. Berries — blue, in the diameter up to 1.3 cm, covered with a gray scurf, with juicy greenish pulp.
Imperceptible berries of blueberry are considered as a fine dietary product, besides, they are very useful to human health. At their regular reception the improvement of exchange processes in an organism is observed, work of heart is normalized, blood vessels become stronger, work of digestive organs improves. They assist in recovery of sight.
Bilberry
Bilberry bushes grow in height up to 40 cm, and their roundish black-blue berries grow in the diameter up to 8 mm. Blossoming of bilberry begins at the end of May, and the first harvest can be reaped in the middle of July. Usually bilberry extensively grows in the Urals, in forests of the Caucasus, in Siberia, giving preference to rich forest soils. Its berries contain the whole arsenal of useful substances and vitamins which well influence a human body, especially improve sight. In traditional medicine also bilberry leaves are widely applied to treatment of diseases of digestive tract, burns, diabetes and stomatitises. Despite all the advantages, bilberry is still not included in the list of the cultivated plants and therefore it isn't applied to cultivation in agricultural conditions. Preparation of berries usually happens among wild-growing thickets.
Main differences of blueberry and bilberry
- The stalk at bilberry completely doesn't stiffen, leaving not covered with a bark layer, green escapes, unlike blueberry which stalk is covered with bark from a top to a bottom. - Plants of all grades of bilberry have the extended vertical form, and blueberry belongs to group of creeping plants. - The blueberry stalk on color looks lighter in comparison with a bilberry stalk. - Juice of blueberry is colourless, and here bilberry plentifully soils hands and a mouth in blue color. - Pulp of berries of bilberry of rich dark blue color, and at blueberry of greenish. - Round berries of bilberry by the size it is less, than a little oblong berries of blueberry. - On color of berry of bilberry black-blue, a blueberry – blue-gray. - The taste of berries of bilberry is distinctly expressed, and blueberry to taste is just slightly sourish.