ABSTRACT
Vaccinium macrocarpon is distributed from Newfoundland to central Minnesota, south to Nova Scotia, New England, Long Island, West Virginia, northern Ohio, central Indiana, northern Illinois, and rarely Arkansas, and it also occurs in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. The cranberry is grown within this native range, but also in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, where it has escaped and become established in the wild. Cranberry culture was developed in the New World, and although some fruit is still collected from the wild, almost all consumed cranberries are now cultivated. This crop grows naturally in open bogs, in swamps, and on wet shores, and it is cultivated in artificially created bogs that mimic the natural habitat. The center of cranberry cultivation and production is still Massachusetts, but considerable quantities are also raised in the peatlands of British Columbia, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Washington, and Oregon.
