Cranberry Information

Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the genus Vaccinium subgenus Oxycoccus, or in some treatments, in the distinct genus Oxycoccus. They are found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 m long and 5 to 20 cm in height, with slender, wiry stems, not thickly woody, and small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. They are pollinated by domestic honey bees. The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness. Cranberries are a major commercial crop in certain US states and Canadian provinces. Most cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, and sweetened dried cranberries, with the remainder sold fresh to consumers. Cranberry sauce is widely regarded as an indispensable part of the traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving menu.

There are three to four species of cranberry, classified in two sections:

Subgenus Oxycoccus, sect. Oxycoccus
Vaccinium oxycoccus or Oxycoccus palustris (Common Cranberry or Northern Cranberry) is widespread throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America. It has small 5-10 mm leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with a purple central spike, produced on finely hairy stems. The fruit is a small pale pink berry, with a refreshing sharp acidic flavour.
Vaccinium microcarpum or Oxycoccus microcarpus (Small Cranberry) occurs in northern Europe and northern Asia, and differs from V. oxycoccus in the leaves being more triangular, and the flower stems hairless. Some botanists include it within V. oxycoccus.
Vaccinium macrocarpon or Oxycoccus macrocarpus (American Cranberry, Bearberry) native to northeastern North America (eastern Canada, and eastern United States, south to North Carolina at high altitudes). It differs from V. oxycoccus in the leaves being larger, 10-20 mm long, and in its slightly apple-like taste. Subgenus Oxycoccus, sect. Oxycoccoides Vaccinium erythrocarpum or Oxycoccus erythrocarpus (Southern Mountain Cranberry) native to southeastern North America at high altitudes in the southern Appalachian Mountains, and also in eastern Asia.

Cranberries are related to the bilberries, blueberries, and huckleberries, all in Vaccinium subgenus Vaccinium. These differ in having stouter, woodier stems forming taller shrubs, and in the bell-shaped flowers, the petals not being reflexed. Some plants of the completely unrelated genus Viburnum are sometimes inaccurately called "highbush cranberries".

The name cranberry probably derives from their being a favorite food of cranes, though some sources claim the name comes from "'craneberry' because before the flower expands, its stem, calyx, and petals resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane". Another name, used in northeastern Canada, is mossberry. An old English name for Vaccinium oxycoccus is the fenberry, because they were grown in fen (marsh) lands. Cranberries have been eaten by Arctic peoples for millennia and remain a very popular fruit for wild harvesting in the Nordic countries and Russia. In Scotland the berries were formerly wild harvested but with the loss of suitable habitat, the plants have become so scarce that this is no longer done. In North America, Native Americans were the first to recognise and use the cranberry as a source of food. Some tribes called the red berries Sassamanash. They are reported to have introduced the cranberry to starving English settlers in Massachusetts around 1620, who incorporated the berry into the traditional Thanksgiving feast. American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall is alleged to be the first to cultivate the cranberry commercially, in the Cape Cod town of Dennis around 1816. There is potential benefit of cranberry juice consumption against bacterial infections in the urinary system. While much of the evidence is equivocal, hypotheses suggest that an effect occurs from a component of the juice competitively inhibiting bacterial attachment to the bladder and urethra.