cranberry

Fruit of any of several small creeping or trailing plants of the genus Vaccinium (heath family), related to the blueberry. The small-fruited, or northern, cranberry (V. oxycoccus) is found in marshy land in northern North America and Asia and in northern and central Europe. Its crimson berries, about the size of currants and often spotted, have an acid taste. The American cranberry (V. macrocarpon), found wild in most of the northeastern U.S. and grown extensively in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin and near the Pacific coast in Washington and Oregon, is more robust than V. oxycoccus, with larger, pink to very dark red or mottled red-and-white berries. Cranberries are used in drinks, sauces, jellies, and baked goods.

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