Flora of North America species comparison

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Cassiope lycopodioides

club-moss mountain-heather
Stems

prostrate to weakly ascending, forming loose mats, hairy.
Leaves

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.
Flowers

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.
Capsules

ca. 3 mm.

Cassiope lycopodioides
Phenology Flowering Jun–Aug.
Habitat Alpine rocky slopes and crevices
Elevation 100-2000 m (300-6600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 448.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Cassiopoideae > Cassiope
Sibling taxa
C. mertensiana, C. tetragona
Synonyms Andromeda lycopodioides, C. lycopodioides subsp. cristapilosa
Name authority (Pallas) D. Don: Edinburgh New Philos. J. 17: 158. (1834)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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