Single Record

PhotoRecords: YES Nick Moore: Conejos Co, just south of Red Lake, 4 July 2023

Comments: There are only four vouchers of dwart bluebery from the Watershed, widely separated, though all in the South San Juans: Rio Grande Co, Summitville tailings; San Juan Co, SE of Stony Pass; Conejos Co, near Fish Lake; and Mineral Co, east of Wolf Creek Pass. The latest observations are July 2021, from the Conejos River drainage above Fox Creek (iNaturalist #88214828); and July 2023, above Red Lake in Conejos Co (iNaturalist #177921008). In the Southern San Juan Mountains Wilderness, Sharples (2017) found Vaccinium cespitosum "rare," whereas V. myrtillus was "abundant." and V. scoparium "common." V. cespitosum can be part of the understory of conifer woods, or grow on open alpine slopes and rocks. The USA distribution is disjunct—a population found in nearly every Western state, and a population around the Great Lakes and northern New England. It has been recorded from Rio Arriba and Taos counties of New Mexico, but no farther down the Rio Grande drainage. Note that of the three Vaccinium species in the Watershed, V. cespitosum is distinguished by bushier shape, leaves oblanceolate with glandular serrations, corolla pinkish, and twigs not clearly angular in cross-section.