Cassiope
Cassiope lycopodioides
moss-heather, mountain-heather, white heather
club-moss mountain-heather
decumbent to prostrate, spreading, ascending, or erect, mat-forming, glabrous or hairy.
prostrate to weakly ascending, forming loose mats, hairy.
blade canoe-shaped, without abaxial groove, or dorsiventrally expanded by marginal outgrowths forming abaxial groove, margins entire, thin or scarious, surfaces glabrous or glandular or hairy.
not or somewhat imbricate, closely appressed to stem, not strongly 4-ranked;
blade linear-lanceolate, abaxial groove absent, 2–3 × 0.5–1.2 mm, margins conspicuously scarious, curled hairs present at leaf tips (at least on young leaves), abaxial base and adaxial surface hairy.
erect with deflexed tip at anthesis, elongating (or not) and straight in fruit;
bracteoles absent.
sepals ± distinct, oblong-ovate;
filaments not enlarged at base;
anthers with awns;
ovary subglobose to ovoid;
style cylindric;
stigma capitate.
sepals 1.5–2 mm, margins hyaline;
petals connate for ca. 1/2 their lengths, tips recurved, corolla white, campanulate, 6–8 mm;
stamens to 3 mm.
borne on erect pedicels, subglobose to ovoid.
ca. 3 mm.
= 13.
Cassiope
Cassiope lycopodioides
Species 18 (3 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Subspecies cristapilosa was based on a collection from the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. The only distinction that the authors drew between it and subsp. lycopodioides was that subsp. cristapilosa has one to three crisped apical hairs on the leaves. Their claim that subsp. lycopodioides has entirely glabrous leaves is not supported. All specimens of Cassiope lycopodioides that I have seen have curled hairs on the leaf apices of at least the young leaves. The hairs appear to be fugacious. However, subsp. cristapilosa does differ from subsp. lycopodioides in several features. It lacks the hyaline leaf margin as well as the adaxial surface and abaxial leaf base pubescence. In addition, the stems are thicker, and the pedicels and corollas are longer. This insular material warrants further investigation.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaf blades grooved on abaxial surface. | C. tetragona |
1. Leaf blades not grooved on abaxial surface | → 2 |
2. Leaf blade margins not scarious, without curled hairs at leaf tips. | C. mertensiana |
2. Leaf blade margins conspicuously scarious, with curled hairs at leaf tips (at least on young leaves). | C. lycopodioides |
CA
OR
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
BC
