The plant prefers shallow, poorly developed mineral soil as well as on drained peat. In mature forests, plants often grow on top of decaying tree stumps. It is normally found growing on exposed sites, such as windswept crags, bare headlands, rocky ledges, scree, sea cliffs, hilly rocky barrens, and mountain summits, high moors, heath barrens, sand dunes, and in peat lands, forest swamps, and bogs. Lingonberry is a low, creeping, evergreen subshrub that grows about 2 to 6 inches (5-15 cm) in height. When used primarily for their health benefits, lingonberries are also often juiced or ingested in supplemental form. Also known as foxberries or cowberries, these tart red berries can be eaten raw or they can be processed into delicious lingonberry jam or syrup (popular in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries). They have been used for centuries both as food and as medicine. Lingonberries are smaller, juicier and slightly sweeter than their cousins – cranberries. Other berries such as blueberries, cranberries, and raspberries are more popular and well-known lingonberries are gaining massive popularity in the world due to their health benefits. The specific name is derived from Latin vitis (“vine”) and idaea, the feminine form of idaeus (literally “from Mount Ida”, used in reference to raspberries Rubus idaeus). The genus name Vaccinium is a classical Latin name for a plant, possibly the bilberry or hyacinth, and may be derived from the Latin bacca, berry. The name lingonberry originates from the Swedish name lingon for the species, and is derived from the Norse lyngr, or heather.

The plant belongs to heath family, the same family as the cranberry and blueberry. The lingonberry fruit, also known as foxberry, quailberry, bearberry, beaverberry, mountain cranberry, red whortleberry, lowbush cranberry, cougarberry, mountain bilberry, partridgeberry, redberry and alpine cranberry is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. Lingonberry scientifically known as Vaccinium vitis-idaea is a short evergreen shrub that bears edible fruits.

Lingon berry sauce