Lingonberries

The lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) is a small shrubby herbaceous plant whose fruit-berries are the source of some valuable substances – for example polyphenols that influence the urinary tract. Those substances are contained in both the berries and the leaves. It grows in an area reaching from Europe to Small Asia, Caucasus and Siberia, and even to eastern Asia. It grows on acidic soils vegetated with heath and peatbog, most frequently in the mountains. In this country, it occurs for example in the Šumava mountain range, but it may not be collected because of being rare.