Vaccinium sempervirens Rayner & Henderson. Rayner's Blueberry. Hab: Seepage bogs in the fall-line Sandhills, longleaf pine woodlands over sandstone and gravel outcrops. Dist: Endemic to Lexington County, SC, known from only a few sites

Origin/Endemic status: Endemic

Taxonomy Comments: This species is clearly closely allied to V. crassifolium. Kirkman & Ballington (1990) reduce it to a subspecies. Because it is allopatric and relatively discrete morphologically, despite occurring in similar habitats, I prefer to retain it as a species. See Kirkman, Wentworth, & Ballington (1989) and Kirkman & Ballington (1990) for further discussion of the systematics and ecology of this species and V. crassifolium. Vaccinium sempervirens is a diploid species, 2x=24 (Redpath et al. 2022).

Synonymy: = Rayner & Henderson (1980); = n/a – RAB; = Vaccinium crassifolium Andrews ssp. sempervirens (Rayner & Hend.) W.B.Kirkman & Ballingt. – K1, K3, K4; < Vaccinium crassifolium Andrews – FNA8, Luteyn et al (1996), Redpath et al (2022), Vander Kloet (1988)

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Wetland Indicator Status:

• Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FAC (taxonomic split from wetland indicator species)

Heliophily ?: 5