A common low blueberry of xeric sites, such as hillsides, Vaccinium pallidum has glabrous (smooth) twigs; the leaves are glaucous (whitened) beneath. Hillside Blueberry flowers in mid-April. The flowers are greenish-white, tinged with red. The similar Black Huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) is also common in the same habitat, but this has golden-colored resin glands on both sides of the leaves and narrower, more reddish flowers.

In North Carolina, Hillside Blueberry is common in the Mountains and Piedmont and occasional in the Coastal Plain.

Montgomery Co., NC 4/17/2011.

Hillside Blueberry is similar to Small Black Blueberry (Vaccinium tenellum), which is more common in the Coastal Plain, but V. tenellum has densely pubescent twigs and green leaf undersides with red stipitate glands.

Montgomery Co., NC 4/17/2011.