The cultivated blueberry encompasses a wide variety of cultivars developed through plant breeding from plant species of the subgenus or section Cyanococcus within the genus Vaccinium. Blueberries belong to the plant family Ericaceae. Contrary to common assumption, cultivated blueberries do not descend from the European bilberry, blueberry, or whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), whose fruits stain the mouth and lips blue when eaten, but originate from North America. The coloring anthocyanins are located in the skin of the nearly spherical, blue berries; their flesh is light-colored.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, over 100 new cultivars have been developed. Cultivated blueberries are of global importance as market fruits. Before their cultivation as a fruit supplier, the cultivated blueberry had already been introduced in European landscape architecture as an ornamental plant due to its decorative autumn coloration.
