Highbush blueberry or Bilberry: how to tell them apart?
Highbush blueberry and Bilberry look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Highbush blueberry
Vaccinium corymbosum
Bilberry
Vaccinium myrtillus
Wild bilberry has small blue-black fruits with purple flesh and angular twigs; the cultivated highbush blueberry has much larger berries with pale flesh, on a taller, more upright shrub.
🍃 Leaves
Deciduous, ovate, bright green, turning attractive reds in autumn
Small, ovate, finely toothed, deciduous, bright green
🌸 Flowers
White to pinkish, in clustered bells, appearing before or with the leaves
Small solitary pinkish bells
🍎 Fruits
Blue-violet berry with a waxy bloom, much larger than the wild European bilberry
Small blue-black berries covered with a waxy bloom, purple flesh
🪵 Bark
Fine reddish-brown twigs
Green, angular stems, photosynthetic
📏 Size
1 to 2 m tall
0.2 to 0.5 m tall
🗺️ Habitat
Grown in the open ground in acid, peaty or heathland soils
Mountain heaths and woodland, acid soils
⚠️ Toxicity
Edible fruit; no known toxicity
No known toxicity; fruits edible.
🔎 And from the Bilberry side
Wild bilberry has small blue-black fruits with purple flesh and angular twigs; the cultivated highbush blueberry has much larger berries with pale flesh, on a taller, more upright shrub.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.