Lingonberry or cowberry

The lingonberry, also known as the cowberry, fox berry, mountain cranberry, partridgeberry and red whortleberry, is a small evergreen shrub of the Ericaceae family, which grows wild in the mountainous regions of Scandinavia, Russia, Canada and in the United States - Maine.

Lingonberries are circumboreal woody dwarf to low growing, rhizomatous, evergreen shrubs. Lingonberry leaves are thick and leathery, elliptic to obovate, slightly revolute, glossy bright green above, pale and glandular below with entire margins.

Although lingonberry has been considered among the most important of the fruit jellies, no evidence exist about its importance in the diet of earlier times.

Lingonberry has been important as a supplier of energy and vitamins. Lingonberry fruit differs from most of the other wild berry species owing to its long term storage potential. Lingonberry is a food native to Scandinavia.

Lingonberry has shown antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in laboratory studies. The fruits have been described as ‘shaped like blueberries but acid like cranberries’. They are pleasantly tart and aromatic, but may be bitter, especially when unripe.

Lingonberry fruit contains large amounts of aroma compounds and anthocyanins, negligible amounts of proteins and only small amounts of minerals, although lingonberry fruit provides 4 mg vitamin C, 0.02 mg carotene, and 67 kcal of energy per 100 g.

In Sweden, lingonberry has been used as a food and as a traditional medicine to treat inflammatory disease and wounds.
Lingonberry or cowberry