Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 meters (7 ft) long and 5 to 20 centimeters (2 to 8 in) in height; they have slender stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves.

The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially light green, turning red when ripe.

[5] Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 meters (7 ft) long and 5 to 20 centimeters (2 to 8 in) in height;[6] they have slender, wiry stems that are not thickly woody and have small evergreen leaves.

The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward.

The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially light green, turning red when ripe.

[11] Around 1694, German and Dutch colonists in New England used the word, cranberry, to represent the expanding flower, stem, calyx, and petals resembling the neck, head, and bill of a crane.

[12]American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall first cultivated cranberries in the Cape Cod town of Dennis around 1816.

In 1847, Cyrus Cahoon planted a crop of "Early Black" variety near Pleasant Lake, Harwich, Massachusetts.By 1900, 8,700 hectares (21,500 acres) were under cultivation in the New England region.

[14] The first occurred in the 1920s, with aims to create a crop that was more insect resistant, specifically to blunt-nosed leafhopper (Limotettix vaccini) the vector of cranberry false blossom disease.

[16] In more recent years, there have been heavier restrictions on pesticides due to environmental safety concerns, leading to a larger emphasis of high yield-high resistance varieties.

In addition to making it possible to hold water, the dykes allow equipment to service the beds without driving on the vines.

[21] Cranberries are harvested in the fall when the fruit takes on its distinctive deep red color, and most ideally after the first frost.

This entails higher labor costs and lower yield, but dry-picked berries are less bruised and can be sold as fresh fruit instead of having to be immediately frozen or processed.

Originally performed with two-handed comb scoops, dry picking is today accomplished by motorized, walk-behind harvesters which must be small enough to traverse beds without damaging the vines.

Cranberries for fresh market are stored in shallow bins or boxes with perforated or slatted bottoms, which deter decay by allowing air to circulate.

Because harvest occurs in late autumn, cranberries for fresh market are frequently stored in thick walled barns without mechanical refrigeration.

In North America, the Narragansett people of the Algonquian nation in the regions of New England appeared to be using cranberries in pemmican for food and for dye.

[33] In James Rosier's book The Land of Virginia there is an account of Europeans coming ashore and being met with Native Americans bearing bark cups full of cranberries.

In 1643, Roger Williams's book A Key into the Language of America described cranberries, referring to them as "bearberries" because bears ate them.

In 1648, preacher John Elliott was quoted in Thomas Shepard's book Clear Sunshine of the Gospel with an account of the difficulties the Pilgrims were having in using the Indians to harvest cranberries as they preferred to hunt and fish.

The berries are of a pale yellow color, afterwards red, as big as a cherry, some perfectly round, others oval, all of them hollow with sower [sic] astringent taste; they are ripe in August and September.

Jefferson sent back a number of books on the subject and in return asked for a gift of apples, pecans and cranberries.

William Aiton, a Scottish botanist, included an entry for the cranberry in volume II of his 1789 work Hortus Kewensis.

Such preparations are traditionally served with roast turkey, as a staple of Thanksgiving (both in Canada and in the United States) as well as English dinners.

[37] When the quality of meta-analyses on the efficacy of consuming cranberry products for preventing or treating UTIs is examined with the weaker evidence that is available, large variation and uncertainty of effects are seen, resulting from inconsistencies of clinical research design and inadequate numbers of subjects.

[44] Cranberry juice contains a high molecular weight non-dializable material that is under research for its potential to affect formation of plaque by Streptococcus mutans pathogens that cause tooth decay.

Since the new company represented over 90% of the market, it would have been illegal under American antitrust laws had attorney John Quarles not found an exemption for agricultural cooperatives.

The Order is part of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, identifying cranberries as a commodity good that can be regulated by Congress.

The Cranberry Marketing Committee currently runs promotional programs in the United States, China, India, Mexico, Pan-Europe, and South Korea.

As of 2016[update], the European Union was the largest importer of American cranberries, followed individually by Canada, China, Mexico, and South Korea.