Gaylussacia
Gaylussacia dumosa
huckleberry
dwarf huckleberry
erect;
twigs glabrous or hairy, sometimes glandular.
deciduous (G. brachycera persistent);
blade obovate or ovate to oblong or oblanceolate, membranous or coriaceous, margins entire or crenate (sometimes serrulate) [glandular-crenate], plane or revolute, glabrous or hairy;
venation reticulodromous.
petiole 0.5–1.5 mm;
blade light green abaxially, shiny dark green adaxially, oblanceolate to obovate, 2.5–4 × 0.3–1 cm, subcoriaceous, base cuneate, margins entire, (scattered stipitate-glandular-hairy and ciliate, 2–5 cilia per mm), apex obtuse to subacute, mucronate, surfaces scattered stipitate-glandular-hairy and sessile-glandular, adaxial surface sometimes glabrescent.
axillary or terminal racemes, 2–8-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary.
erect or arching, 5–8-flowered, bracteate, 3–6 cm, stipitate-glandular-hairy;
bracts persistent, leaflike, expanding to 5–12 mm, equaling or longer than pedicels, hairy and stipitate-glandular-hairy.
2–3 mm, hairy and stipitate-glandular-hairy;
bracteoles 1–2, 2–5 mm.
sepals (4–)5, sometimes vestigial, connate basally, deltate (straight or inflexed in fruit);
petals 4–5, connate for nearly their entire lengths, greenish white or white to pink or orange to red, corolla urceolate, campanulate, or campanulate-conic, lobes much shorter than tube;
stamens 10, included, (slightly shorter than corolla);
filaments straight, flattened, glabrous or pilose, without spurs;
anthers without awns, dehiscent through narrowly oblong, terminal pores;
pistil 5–10-carpellate;
ovary inferior, 5- or 10-locular;
stigma capitate.
sepals 5, 2 mm, sparsely to moderately hairy (hairs 0.2–0.3 mm) and stipitate-glandular-hairy;
petals 5, corolla white to pink, sometimes reddish, campanulate, 3–5 mm, lobes triangular, 1–1.5 mm;
filaments 0.3–0.5 mm, sparsely hairy;
anthers included, 3–3.5 mm, thecae divergent distally;
ovary stipitate-glandular-hairy, hairs 0.2–0.3 mm.
drupaceous, ovoid to globose, fleshy.
juicy, insipid, black, 6–8 mm diam., stipitate-glandular.
(pyrenes) 10, ellipsoid;
testa stony, papillose (smooth in G. ursina).
1.5–1.8 mm.
= 12.
Gaylussacia
Gaylussacia dumosa
Decachaena (Torrey & A. Gray) Lindley; Lasiococcus Small
Species ca. 50 (10 in the flora).
The genus Gaylussacia was organized into three sections by H. Sleumer (1967). The sections are: sect. Vitis-idaea (species 1) with coriaceous, persistent leaves lacking resinous dots; sect. Gaylussacia (species 2–5) with deciduous leaves with some stipitate-glandular hairs; and sect. Decamerium (species 6–10) with deciduous leaves and sessile glands. Molecular investigation by J. W. Floyd (2002) suggested these sections may not be entirely natural, and that the origin of the genus may be in North America, despite the greater diversity in South America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Gaylussacia dumosa and G. bigeloviana have been confused due to a reliance on insufficient characters to distinguish them and due to descriptions and ranges that were based partly on misidentified specimens. Gaylussacia dumosa is a low shrub of the coastal plain and lower piedmont, with scattered occurrences in the upper piedmont and at moderate elevations in the mountains.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaf blades 1-2.5 cm, margins crenate or serrulate, coriaceous, not sessile-glandular; leaves persistent [sect. Vitis-idaea]. | G. brachycera |
1. Leaf blades 1.9-6 cm, margins entire, membranous to subcoriaceous, sessile-glandular (or scattered stipitate-glandular-hairy); leaves deciduous [sect. Gaylussacia] | → 2 |
2. Inflorescence bracts equaling or longer than pedicels, persistent; sepals, pedicels, bracts, and/or leaf blades stipitate-glandular-hairy | → 3 |
2. Inflorescence bracts shorter than pedicels, early-deciduous; sepals, pedicels, bracts, and/or leaf blades not stipitate-glandular-hairy [sect. Decamerium] | → 6 |
3. Corollas 3-5 mm; plants 1-3(-4) dm. | G. dumosa |
3. Corollas 5.5-8.5 mm; plants 3-10(-15) dm | → 4 |
4. Corollas 5.5-6.5 mm; anthers 2.5-3.2 mm; peaty montane seepage bogs, w North Carolina. | G. orocola |
4. Corollas 6.5-8.5 mm; anthers 2.5-4.3 mm | → 5 |
5. Adaxial leaf surfaces not sessile-glandular; ovary hairs 1-1.5 mm; e Gulf coastal plain, s Alabama, n Florida, sw Georgia, se Louisiana, s Mississippi. | G. mosieri |
5. Adaxial leaf surfaces sessile-glandular; ovary hairs 0.3-0.5 mm; northeastern range, south to Maryland and Delaware, disjunct to North Carolina and South Carolina | G. bigeloviana |
6. Leaf blades sessile-glandular-hairy on both surfaces; racemes 0.5-1.5 cm. | G. baccata |
6. Leaf blades sessile-glandular hairy on abaxial surface only; racemes 0.7-4.5 cm | → 7 |
7. Leaf blades membranous, green to yellowish green or reddish green adaxially, apex acute to acuminate. | G. ursina |
7. Leaf blades subcoriaceous, green to glaucescent adaxially, apex rounded or obtuse | → 8 |
8. Twigs of current season glabrous or glabrate; leaf blades glabrous or hairy abaxially, glaucescent; plants 7.5-20 dm; east coast, south to e Georgia. | G. frondosa |
8. Twigs of current season densely hairy (hairs short); leaf blades sparsely to densely hairy abaxially, glaucous or glaucescent; plants 2-20 dm; se North Carolina and southward in coastal plain and west to Louisiana | → 9 |
9. Leaf blades 2.5-4 × 1-2 cm, surfaces glabrous or sparsely short-hairy (longer hairs ca. 0.1 mm), glaucous abaxially; calyces glaucous; plants 2-6(-10) dm. | G. nana |
9. Leaf blades 2.5-6 × 2-3 cm, surfaces densely short-hairy (longer hairs ca. 0.2 mm), glaucescent abaxially; calyces not glaucous; plants 7.5-20 dm. | G. tomentosa |
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