BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Vaccinium arboreum | Tree Sparkleberry 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Tree sparkleberry grows as a large, much-branched, upright shrub or
small tree [13,34,48].  Individuals may grow as tall plants with rounded
crowns, or as flat-topped shrubs with crooked branches [38].  Shrubby
plants commonly reach only 7 to 10 feet (2-3 m) in height [38,45].
However, on favorable sites, plants may grow to 33 feet (10 m) with a
d.b.h. of up to 14 inches (35 cm) [38,45].  Record trees have been
measured at 64 feet (19 m) in height with circumferences of up to 116
inches (45.9 cm) [25].  Tree sparkleberry is the only member of the
Vaccinium genus to reach tree size [22].  Shrubby plants commonly form
loose thickets [38].

The outer bark is gray to grayish-brown, thin, and smooth, with narrow
ridges [48].  The slender, rigid twigs are reddish-brown to
reddish-green or gray, and glaucous, glabrous, or glandular-pubescent
[38,44,45].  Stem morphology has been reported in detail [32].  Leaves
of tree sparkleberry are variable in size, shape, and persistence [38].
Plants tend to be deciduous in the north but evergreen in the southern
part of the species' range [13,48].  The simple, alternate leaves are
coriaceous, glabrous, and lustrous above [38,45].  The lower surface is
glaucous, duller green, and often glandular-pubescent [45,48].  Leaves
are obovate to elliptic, approximately 1 to 3 inches (3-8 cm) in length
with entire or obscurely denticulate margins [44,48].

The showy, white to pinkish flowers of tree sparkleberry grow in
abundance [44,48].  The perfect flowers are borne in leafy-bracted
racemes or panicles that average 0.8 to 2.7 inches (2-7 cm) in length
[13,48].  Inflorescences typically occur on second year growth [34].
Palser [33] has examined floral morphology in detail.  Fruit is a black,
lustrous, globose berry 0.2 to 0.4 inch (5-9 mm) in diameter [34,45,48].
Berries are sweet but dry, hard, and mealy [2,48].  The fruit typically
persists well into the winter months [44,48].  Each berry contains 8 to
10 stony, shiny, black to golden-brown seeds [2,38,48,52].  The
variously-shaped, deeply pitted seeds average 0.08 inch (2 mm) in length
[45,48].

The variety glaucescens is distinguished by a larger inflorescence and
glaucescent leaves [48].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Undisturbed State:  Phanerophyte (mesophanerophyte)
   Undisturbed State:  Phanerophyte (microphanerophyte)
   Undisturbed State:  Phanerophyte (nanophanerophyte)
   Burned or Clipped State:  Therophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Tree sparkleberry normally fruits after attaining "the height of a large
shrub or tall tree" [15].  Fruit production is apparently somewhat
erratic.  In some years fruit production is prolific, but in other
years, plants produce no fruit [40].  Stephens [38] reported that even
plants that flower in abundance commonly produce only sparse amounts of
fruit.  Various birds and mammals serve as dispersal agents.  Seedling
establishment presumably occurs when conditions are favorable.
Germination characteristics are unknown.

Although many ericaceous shrubs sprout after aboveground foliage is
damaged or destroyed, sprouting has apparently not been documented in
tree sparkleberry.


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Tree sparkleberry grows on sand dunes, hammocks, granitic outcrops, dry
sterile hillsides, in rocky woods, abandoned fields, and meadows
[37,38,41,45,49].  It also occurs on a variety of moist sites such as in
wet bottomlands and along creek banks [37,41,45].  Tree sparkleberry is
common throughout much of the Coastal Plain and in the Piedmont [34].
In the southern Appalachians, plants generally grow below 2,591 feet
(790 m) in elevation [52].

Tree sparkleberry grows in many plant communities including mixed
swamps, cypress heads or domes, bayheads, and sand hills [19,28,29,30].
It also occurs in many xeric mixed pine-hardwood forests, pine
flatwoods, post oak savanna, and sand-pine scrub [19,37,45].  Common
overstory dominants include longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), loblolly
pine (P. taeda), slash pine (P. elliottii), shortleaf pine (P.
echinata), turkey oak (Quercus laevis), live oak (Q. virginana),
blackjack oak, hickory, black swamp tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), and
sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) [5,7,9,12,26,36,40].  Toward the
northern portion of its range in Missouri and Illinois, tree
sparkleberry may be an important mid-canopy species in eastern redcedar
(Juniperus virginiana) or eastern redcedar-post oak (Quercus stellata)
stands [31,50].

Understory associates:  Common understory associates in longleaf pine
and longleaf-slash pine communities include deerberry (Vaccinium
stamineum), flameleaf sumac (Rhus copallina), poison-ivy (Toxicodendron
radicans), southern bayberry (Myrica cerifera), bluejack oak (Quercus
incana), gum bumelia (Bumelia languginosa), yaupon (Ilex vomitoria), and
muscadine grape (Vitis rotundifolia) [5,24,39].  Flowering dogwood
(Cornus florida), possumhaw (Ilex decidua), yaupon, saw greenbriar
(Smilax bona-nox), common greenbrier (S. rotundifolia), rusty blackhaw
(Viburnum rufidulum), muscadine grape, and various oaks are common
components of loblolly-shortleaf pine forests [4,7,40].  Other common
associates include hawthorne (Crataegus spp.), common persimmon
(Diospyros virginiana), sweet bay (Magnolia grandiflora), red bay
(Persea borbonia), hackberry (Celtis spp.), water oak (Quercus nigra),
and coast laurel oak (Q. laurifolia) [9,14,37].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Tree sparkleberry grows in many successional stages in pine-oak-hickory
and evergreen oak-hardwood forests of Florida [18].  It is an important
component of "subclimax" communities in loblolly pine-shortleaf pine
stands [4] and grows in successional cypress dome and flatwood
communities [29].  Tree sparkleberry invades mesic sites in longleaf
pine-turkey oak sandhill communities of Florida [47].  It also assumes
prominence in some "young" forest-grassland communities of eastern Texas
[37].

Tree sparkleberry grows in all successional phases of many pine-hardwood
communities [37].  It occurs as an understory dominant with deerberry,
flameleaf sumac, poison-ivy, southern bayberry, and American
beauty-berry (Callicarpa americana) on "less frequently burned" sites in
longleaf pine-shortleaf pine forests [5].  Where fires occur at frequent
intervals, bluejack oak, post oak, blackjack oak, sweetgum, flowering
dogwood, and loblolly pine are more common [5].

Tree sparkleberry is a component of seasonally flooded bayheads and
southern mixed hardwood swamps which are considered climax communities
[29].  It also grows in southern mixed hardwood forests which represent
the dominant climax upland vegetation over most of the southeastern
Coastal Plain [29].  Tree sparkleberry occurs in dry, old growth upland
stands with such species as bluejack oak, loblolly pine, longleaf pine,
sweetgum, and gum bumelia [24].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Tree sparkleberry flowers in late spring or summer.  Some plants flower
much earlier than others at the same geographic location [52].  Fruit
ripens over a relatively long period [38], with ovules maturing in
approximately 200 days [45].  Fruit commonly persists into the winter
months [48].  Flowering and fruiting by geographic location is as
follows:

Location       Flowering           Fruiting           Authority

SC, NC         late April-June     Sept.-Oct.         Radford and other 1968
FL             March-April         Aug.-Oct.          Ward 1974
         (infreq. in Feb., July)
Great Plains   May-June            Aug.-Sept.         Great Plains Flora
                                                      Association 1986
c Great Plains late May            Sept.-Oct.         Stephens 1973
VA             April-May           June-Nov.          Uttal 1987
se U.S.        March-July            ----             Duncan and Duncan 1988  

Related categories for Species: Vaccinium arboreum | Tree Sparkleberry