not be too swampy. The most attractive for our shrubs in the forest zone are pine and spruce forests. Bilberry respects the abundance of light, respects it very much, but tolerates shading well, especially at a young age.

BLUEBERRY IN WINTER AND SUMMER
For the winter, unlike lingonberries, the blueberry shrub sheds its foliage. And when the first snow falls, blueberry bushes turn into bare twigs. Looking closely at the twig, you can see that light, almost white buds are sitting on it. The buds are small, pointed, pressed against the stem. Outside, they are covered with protective scales. Blueberries spend the whole winter under the snow, sleep for themselves and see dreams, and no frosts can disturb.

But now spring has come. Everything around is growing. Our shrub is no exception, but it is not in a hurry. First you need to wait a while, to see if this is a real spring, not fake, and only then, then the whitish buds start to grow, begin to bloom.

And then the whitish scales will open and release a young shoot. A young shoot - a stem with rudiments of leaves, like an arrow, tends upward. At first, the stem is very short, inconspicuous, and all the leaves are twisted into a tube. Then the stem begins to lengthen, and the leaves gradually unfold, it turns out that they are oval in shape, with small teeth along the edges. The leaves at this time are very soft, delicate, light green in color.

Together with the leaves, buds and buds come out. At first they look like small faceted beads. The beads quickly increase in size, and soon turn into flowers.

The blueberry flower hangs on the tip of a short branch-pedicel and is always lowered down. This is how a resourceful plant protects its flower from the rain. In this scenario, not a single drop will ever get inside the flower. When the shrub blooms, a green ovary is clearly visible outside - the future berry. The plant will fade - the corolla will be on the ground, but the ovary will not, the ovary will remain with the plant.

Blueberries in the spring look very attractive and unusual. Here and there, beautiful greenish lakes peep out under the pines and firs. And these are not the tears of Martians lost in the forest, by no means. Blueberries usually grow in clumps, thickets, and when it begins to be covered with young foliage, it immediately catches the eye. The color of the bushes is light, bright, and against the background of other plants “withered” from winter, it produces such a fantastic effect.

BLUEBERRY AND FALSE BLUEBERRY
Blueberries bloom at about the same time as bird cherry: in May-June, and the fruits ripen about two months after flowering. And just like bird cherry, flowering does not last long. Before you have time to look back, the corollas fell off, and instead of flowers, green ovaries with a flat, as if cut off top appear before our eyes. The ovaries grow, then darken and by the middle of summer turn into black-blue berries with a bluish bloom. In fruits, as in ovaries, the top is also cut off, as it were. It is important to remember this, because the so-called "false blueberries" are not so common in the forests, but still. Berries at They are round, unlike real blueberries. It is not worth collecting such a false berry.

FROM WHICH BUSH TO TAKE BERRY
The underground part of blueberries is thin creeping rhizomes. They do not tend to go deeper, but spread along the uppermost layer of the soil, sometimes even along the litter. Roots creep in all directions, and bushes already familiar to us grow from these roots.

A normal blueberry bush is a long-liver, one might say. But it does not begin to bear fruit immediately. 4-5 years for buildup, and only then a berry will appear on it. At 10-15 years, the bush reaches its climax and bears fruit to its fullest. By the age of 30-40, the plant calms down. Life, one might say, is not lived in vain. And he goes on a well-deserved rest. It’s good for a bush, of course, but it’s important for us to know the following: if a bush has lived for a large number of years, honor and praise be given to it, but it’s not worth picking a berry from an “aged” plant (somewhere after 20 years). It is highly likely that the fruits collected from this centenarian may not contain those useful components that we will talk about later and which are important to us.

How to determine the age of a bush?

It's easy to do. In the first year of life, the shoot looks like a thin green twig. All lateral branches appear only in subsequent years. The more years pass, the more branches form in the shrub. This means that in order to determine the age of blueberries, all that is needed is to calculate the number of annual growths, starting from the thinnest branches of the last year and ending with the main trunk.

FROM TREATMENT TO REJUVENATION!
The benefits of blueberries have been known for a long time. The natives of North America greatly appreciated the velvety dark blue berries both as a food and as a medicine. Usually they rubbed meat with mashed berries, and then smoked it on the fire. Enriched with vitamins and minerals, the meat not only satiated people, but also made the Indians resistant to all kinds of diseases. The Indians did not get sick much and thought that it was the Great Spirit of the Forest who gave them blueberries to protect their children. The same Spirit of the Forest, the Indians believed, advised their healers that tea made from the roots of a shrub relieves pain during childbirth and helps a woman giving birth to relax. A tea brewed from the leaves can be drunk as a tonic to cleanse the body and relieve coughs. The fact remains. Blueberries were the best friend of the Indians!

During colonization, white settlers borrowed from the indigenous people not only the land, but also a culinary recipe, it was called “seuitautig”. It was a humble pudding made of flour, milk, water, and blueberries. The settlers expanded this modest list by adding sugar and butter to it. The dish was simple and convenient. Some historians believe that perhaps this unpretentious masterpiece of culinary art was divided among people on the first Thanksgiving Day.

BLUEBERRY AT HOME - DOCTOR FROM HOME
The Russian name "bilberry" appeared in connection with the ability of the berry to color ("blacken") everything around, whether it be lips, teeth, fingers. Who at least once in his life picked blueberries and ate this berry in large quantities, he will understand. In Rus', blueberries were called "rejuvenating berries". It was believed that she was able to rejuvenate the body. Our ancestors knew the healing power of blueberries and used it. They said about her: “Blueberries are in the house, the doctor is from home”, “I got a little sick, the blueberries will not let the disease on the threshold.” The time of blueberry picking was not the most favorite time of the year for the county doctors. In general, blueberries were appreciated by the people.

WHAT DISEASES BLUEBERRIES TREAT
So what and how did our ancestors treat with blueberries? By the way, not only blueberries, but also its leaves have healing properties.

Blueberries were used for acute and chronic digestive disorders. After all, blueberries well regulate the work of the digestive organs: with diarrhea, it has an astringent effect, and with constipation, it weakens and thereby promotes bowel movements.

Blueberries have been treated in cases of weight loss and appetite.

In case of putrefactive processes of the intestines, blueberries were also first of all turned to.

Blueberries and juice from it are useful for diseases of the stomach, especially with low acidity.

With kidney stones, it is recommended to take a mixture of blueberry and strawberry juices for a long time. Blueberry juice and tea with the addition of fresh juice or berries are drunk as a diuretic, and also used in the treatment of bedwetting. Blueberries and juice from it are used for cystitis, inflammatory diseases of the kidneys, urethritis, and diseases of the biliary tract.

As an external agent, blueberries are used for eczema, skin rashes, scaly lichen: thickly boiled fresh berries are applied in a thick layer to the affected parts of the body. For the treatment of "wet" eczema, burns and other skin lesions are used compresses from freshly picked berries.

With hemorrhoidal bleeding, enemas are made from blueberry leaves.

Blueberries will also help with anemia, rheumatism and gout.

Whole and diluted with water, the juice has a bactericidal effect, including on dysentery bacillus and typhoid fever pathogens.

Berries and decoction of blueberry leaves are recommended for the treatment of some forms of diabetes.

Women used the berry to stop uterine bleeding (abundant menzos or menopause).

It has long been known that blueberries have a beneficial effect on vision, eating it can reduce myopia, increase visual acuity, and improve vision at dusk and at night [2].

During World War II, British airmen were ordered to eat blueberries before flying at night. If you don’t eat blueberries, you won’t fly anywhere - that’s what it came to.

Surprised? Wait, it will be even more interesting.

MODERN MEDICINE ABOUT BLUEBERRY
And what does modern medicine say about blueberries? Modern medicine does not contradict folk medicine at all, it only explains everything in its own way. She explains the medicinal properties of blueberries by the presence of useful substances, which are found in the berries and leaves of blueberries a lot!

The chemical composition of blueberries

Blueberries