DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Vaccinium vitis-idaea | Mountain Cranberry 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Mountain cranberry is a circumpolar, circumboreal species that occurs
throughout parts of North America, Eurasia, and Japan [101,106].  The
New World subspecies (ssp. minus) extends from northwestern Greenland
across the Canadian Arctic southward to New England [114].  It grows
westward to the Great Lakes and British Columbia and reaches islands in
the Bering Sea [42,114].  In North America, mountain cranberry is
restricted to areas north of the glacial boundary [106].  The subspecies
vitis-idaea occurs throughout northern Europe from Scandinavia to
northern Italy and the Caucasus, across northern Siberia and Japan
southward into northern China and Korea [42].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES44  Alpine


STATES : 
     AK  CT  ME  MA  MN  NH  VT  WI  AB  BC
     LB  MB  NB  NF  NT  NS  ON  PE  PQ  SK
     YT


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     ACAD  DENA  GLBA  ISRO  LACL  WRST
     YUCH


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
NO-ENTRY


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K094  Conifer bog
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K106  Northern hardwoods
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    12  Black spruce
    13  Black spruce - tamarack
    16  Aspen
    17  Pin cherry
    18  Paper birch
    38  Tamarack
   107  White spruce
   201  White spruce
   202  White spruce - paper birch
   204  Black spruce
   218  Lodgepole pine
   251  White spruce - aspen
   253  Black spruce - white spruce
   254  Black spruce - paper birch


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Mountain cranberry grows as an understory dominant or codominant in a
variety of forest communities including many dominated by jack pine
(Pinus banksiana) and lodgepole pine (P. contorta).  It also occurs as a
dominant or indicator in dwarf shrub and shrub tundra communities.
Common codominants include dwarf birch (Betula nana), alpine bearberry
(Arctostaphylos alpina), Labrador tea (Ledum spp.), feathermoss
(Pleuroiozium spp.), willow (Salix spp.), sedges (Carex spp.), lichen
(Cladina spp.), and crowberry (Empetrum nigrum).  

Mountain cranberry is listed as a dominant or indicator in the following
plant association, ecosystem association, habitat type, and community
type classifications:

Forest community types of west-central Alberta in relation to selected
  environmental factors [17] 
Field guide to forest ecosystems of west-cewntral Alberta [18]
Vegetation types in northwestern Alaska and comparisons with
  communities in other arctic regions [39]
        
Plant associates:  Cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus), Canada beadruby
(Maianthemum canadense), prickly rose (Rosa acicularis), paper birch (B.
papyrifera), sedge, mountain-laurel (Kalmia angustifolia), bearberry
(Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), crowberry, twinflower (Linnaea borealis),
willow, bog blueberry (Vaccinium ugliginosum), fireweed (Epilobium
angustifolium), bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis), bog
Labrador tea, and feathermoss commonly occur with mountain cranberry in
white and black spruce and jack pine communities [7,22,26,38,48,120].
Willows, bog Labrador tea, prickly rose, crowberry, bog blueberry,
sedges, cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum), and cloudberry are common
associates in treeless sphagnum bogs, cottongrass muskeg, and dwarf
shrub marsh communities [84,111,114,120].

Related categories for Species: Vaccinium vitis-idaea | Mountain Cranberry