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All leaves were distinctly surrulate. Lines of hairs on new twigs. Leaves typically widest at the middle or just below with slightly acuminate tips. Leaves larger than V. elliottii but smaller than V. fuscatum.

Outside of known range, but seems to fit.

To be clear, this is how these plants key based on Weakley's FSUS 2024.

• 1 Shrubs rhizomatous, forming clonal colonies, the upright stems < 1 m tall (and often < 0.5 m tall); ["lowbush blueberries"].
• 1 Shrubs crown-forming, single-stemmed or several-stemmed from the base, the upright stems generally > 1 m tall (often 2-3 m tall, and rarely to 7 m); ["highbush blueberries"].

These plants are definitely crown-forming from a multi-stemmed base. The two larger shrubs were each about 5-6 ft. tall. I saw no obvious signs of rhizomatous spreading.

• 9 Leaves with stipitate glands on the lower surface; [Coastal Plain of SC and s. NC south to FL, west to TX]
• 9 Leaves lacking stipitate glands on the lower surface (variously glabrous to pubescent with eglandular hairs); [collectively widespread].

I see no signs of stipite glands on any of leaves, though there appears to be some very small stipitate glands on the emering twigs, though they appear to be lost as the twig matures.

• 11 Leaves 0.7-3.5 cm long, 0.3-1.5 cm wide, with serrulate margins; twigs slender, numerous.
• 11 Leaves 3-10 cm long, 1.5-4.5 cm wide, with entire, ciliate, or serrulate margins; twigs stouter, fewer.

I have yet to take precise leaf measurements, but they seem to be about 3-6 cm in length and 1.5-3 cm in width. They are conspicuously larger than V.elliottii leaves (which one of these shrubs is growing immediately beside for easy comparison), but still on the smaller side for a highbush blueberry.

• 12 Young twigs glabrous (or puberulent in two lines as in V. formosum); leaf surfaces glabrous; leaf margins eciliate or ciliate.
• 12 Young twigs puberulent, at least in lines; leaf surfaces more-or-less pubescent; leaf margins ciliate (rarely eciliate).

Young twigs and undersides of the leaves are clearly puberulent.

• 15 Puberulence of the young twigs merely in 2 lines; [Mountains and montane sites in the upper Piedmont].
• 15 Puberulence of the young twigs extending around their circumference (not merely in 2 lines); [collectively widespread in our area].

The puberulence of the young twigs is predominantly in 2 lines and extends around the twig circumference only on older twigs before becoming mostly glabrous.

• 16 Leaves elliptic to elliptic-obovate, broadest at or beyond the middle, the apex acute to short-acuminate; leaf margins entire to obscurely serrulate; corolla 5-10 mm long; berry blue, glaucous
• 16 Leaves narrowly ovate, broadest below the middle, the apex acuminate; leaf margins distinctly serrulate; corolla 5-7 mm long; berry purple-black, not glaucous (sometimes drying so as to appear somewhat glaucous blue)

The leaf margins are invariably distinctly serrulate, and the leaves tend to be widest in the middle or just below the middle.

This final question arrives us at Vaccinium simulatum.