Cassiope tetragona
Cassiope lycopodioides
arctic white heather, four-angle moss-heather, four-angle mountain-heather, white arctic mountain heather
club-moss mountain-heather
decumbent to erect, forming dense mats, hairy.
prostrate to weakly ascending, forming loose mats, hairy.
closely imbricate, usually appressed to pair above, usually 4-ranked (decussate);
blade narrowly triangular, dorsi-ventrally expanded marginally forming abaxial groove, 3–6 × 1–1.5 mm, margins thin, without curled hairs at leaf tips, surfaces with short, stiff pubescence.
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.
sepals 2–3 mm, margins entire;
petals connate to 2/3 their lengths, tips spreading to recurved, corolla white to yellowish, cylindric, 4–10 mm;
stamens 2 mm.
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.
3–5 mm.
ca. 3 mm.
= 26.
Cassiope tetragona
Cassiope lycopodioides
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
The Arctic plants of Cassiope tetragona all belong to subsp. tetragona, which is partially replaced by and partly sympatric with subsp. saximontana in northern Cordilleran areas of western Canada, Alaska, Montana, and Washington. The latter differs in pedicel length relative to leaf length and the length of the corolla.
Arctic white heather has traditionally been used by the Inuit for lighting fires. Some Inuit call it itsutit, meaning “fuel for the fire,” plantiksutit, or qijuktaat, meaning “wood fetched.” The flowers are said to taste awful (I. Ootoova et al. 2001).
The subspecies of Cassiope tetragona can generally be distinguished by the characters in the following key. The ranges overlap in Alaska and Yukon, and some collections from this region may prove problematic to assign to either subspecies.
(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. Pedicels extending beyond branch tips, 10+ mm, usually 3+ times leaf length, elongating in fruit; corollas 6-10 mm. | subsp. tetragona |
1. Pedicels not extending beyond branch tips, to 8 mm, usually to 3 times leaf length, not elongating in fruit; corollas 4-6 mm. | subsp. saximontana |
BC
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
