Cranberry

The cranberry is a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. They are found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 meters long and 5 to 20 centimeters in height; they have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves alternating along the stem. Cranberries are translated to Hebrew as תות עץ (Tut Ets). In French, it is known as canneberge, in Spanish as arándano, and in German as Kranichbeere. The English name, used by the European settlers, may be derived from craneberry, given the resemblance of the flower to the head and bill of a crane, or craneberry, referring to the resemblance of the early colonial fresh fruit to the head and bill. Cranberries are a major commercial crop in certain American states and Canadian provinces. Most cranberries are processed into products such as cranberry juice, cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, and sweetened dried cranberries.