Vaccinium corymbosum
highbush blueberry

Vaccinium stamineum
deerberry

Vaccinium is a large genus, comprising some 450 species worldwide, of which about 40 can be found in North America. You might know them by the common names blueberry, bilberry, deerberry, lingonberry, huckleberry, cranberry… Some of the species can be rather difficult to distinguish unless you examine the fruit, and good luck with that, because just about every mammal feeds on them (including me if I ever get to them first).

The rocky areas near Carderock are covered in these two unassuming little shrubs, which along with V. pallidum are the only Vaccinium species found in the Maryland Piedmont (according to the Maryland Biodiversity Project.)  Like most other plants in the Ericaceae (heather family), they like well-drained acidic soils and a good amount of shade.