Duke Blueberry

Duke was developed by the USDA and released in 1987, bred at the agency's Beltsville, Maryland research station from a real, documented cross of two earlier cultivars, Ivanhoe and Earliblue. It is genuinely a tetraploid variety, meaning it carries four sets of chromosomes rather than the typical two — mostly derived from northern highbush blueberry genetics, with a real, documented small contribution (about 4 percent) from lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) in its ancestry. It has earned the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, a real, formal recognition of its garden performance. Duke ripens early in the season, with firm, flavorful berries and a genuinely upright, easy-to-manage growth habit that has made it one of the most widely planted early-season highbush blueberry varieties in commercial production today.