Phyllodoce caerulea (L.) Bab.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Phyllodoce caerulea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/phyllodoce/phyllodoce-caerulea/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

Synonyms

  • Andromeda caerulea L.
  • Bryanthus taxifolius A. Gray

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
corolla
The inner whorl of the perianth. Composed of free or united petals often showy.
glandular
Bearing glands.
included
(botanical) Contained within another part or organ.
linear
Strap-shaped.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
umbel
Inflorescence in which pedicels all arise from same point on peduncle. May be flat-topped (as in e.g. Umbelliferae) to spherical (as in e.g. Araliaceae). umbellate In form of umbel.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Phyllodoce caerulea' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/phyllodoce/phyllodoce-caerulea/). Accessed 2024-03-27.

A dwarf, much-branched evergreen shrub about 6 in. to 9 in. high, of tufted habit. Leaves linear, blunt, much crowded, 14 to 12 in. long, 116 in. or less wide, minutely toothed, dark glossy green. Flowers produced in June and July singly on a slender, glandular stalk up to 112 in. long, or in an umbel of three or four flowers. Corolla bluish purple, pitcher-shaped, nodding, five-toothed, 13 in. long. Calyx with five lance-shaped, downy lobes; stamens ten, and, like the style, included within the corolla.

Native of high alpine summits and high latitudes in Europe, Asia, and N. America. It is found in Scotland in a few localities on the border between Perthshire and Inverness-shire (Forest of Atholl and Badenoch), but had, and may still have, a wider distribution. There are old specimens at Kew from near Aviemore and the Isles of Shiant. Under cultivation it succeeds better in the north of England and in Scotland than in the south, where the summers are too dry and hot for it, and cause its foliage to drop prematurely. It is, consequently, uncommon. In the Botanic Garden of Edinburgh it thrives very well. It should be planted in peat and sphagnum moss mixed, and have a surfacing of the latter also. One of the most interesting of British plants, and distinct in this genus because of its colour. It is figured in: Ross-Craig, Draw. Brit. Pl., Pt. XIX, t. 29.

Two forms of P. caerulea were exhibited by R. B. Cooke in 1938, one from Japan with red-purple flowers, the other, with paler flowers, from Norway. Both received an Award of Merit.