Everyone links blueberries with Maine. Maine really is famous for them — but for the blueberries in your grocery store, a different state grows the most. The secret is two kinds of blueberry plant.
Maine's famous blueberries are wild lowbush berries. They grow low to the ground on open fields called “barrens,” spread on their own, and can't just be planted like a normal crop — farmers manage the wild patches and rake the berries.
Basis: University of Maine / USDA: Maine's crop is wild lowbush blueberries harvested from managed barrens.
The blueberries usually sold fresh in stores are cultivated highbush berries — tall bushes bred by farmers and planted in neat rows. Those grow best in the mild, rainy Pacific Northwest and the Southeast.
Basis: USDA: cultivated highbush blueberries are the main fresh-market type; leading states include Washington, Oregon, Georgia and Michigan.
Because they're counted as two separate crops, Maine can lead wild blueberries while Washington leads cultivated ones — both true at the same time!
Basis: USDA reports wild and cultivated (tame) blueberries as separate categories.
📊 Sources for the rankings mentioned in this note (links to the original data and retrieval dates) are on each quiz page below.