Family: Ericaceae,
Heath
Genus: Phyllodoce
Description
General: dwarf, evergreen shrub, 10-40 cm tall, often
forming extensive mats. Branches numerous, young stems
finely short-hairy and glandular, soon becoming hairless.
 Leaves: alternate, evergreen, crowded in a bottlebrush-
like arrangement, 8-16 mm long and 1-2 mm broad, blunt-
tipped, deeply grooved beneath, looking like the edges are
rolled backward lengthwise, usually hairless except for the
minutely glandular-toothed edges, borne on short stalks
and leaving a raised peglike leaf scar.
 Flowers: deep pinkish-rose, nodding, few to several in
umbel-like clusters at stem tips. Flower stalks long, short-
glandular-hairy. Calyx lobed nearly to the base, the 5 lobes
ovate-lanceolate, blunt-tipped, finely hairy on edges only.
Corolla bell-shaped, about 7 mm long, the 5 lobes curved
back. Stamens 10, included, filaments hairless, anthers
reddish, opening by slits at tips. Ovary shortly yellowish
glandular-hairy, the style about equaling the corolla.
Flowering time: June-August.
 Fruits: capsules, round, about 4 mm wide, opening by
lengthwise slits at tip.
Distribution
Moist to wet, open sites, subalpine to alpine zone, in w and
s.c. parts of MT. Also from Yukon and AK s. in the Rocky
Mountains to CA and ID.
 Medicinal plant: see below.
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