Trees and Shrubs Online logo

Cassiope lycopodioides (Pall.) D. Don

TSO logo

Sponsor this page

For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Cassiope lycopodioides' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cassiope/cassiope-lycopodioides/). Accessed 2026-07-18.

Family

  • Ericaceae

Genus

Synonyms

  • Andromeda lycopodioides Pall.

Glossary

appressed
Lying flat against an object.
axillary
Situated in an axil.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
hybrid
Plant originating from the cross-fertilisation of genetically distinct individuals (e.g. two species or two subspecies).
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
pendent
Hanging.
prostrate
Lying flat.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Cassiope lycopodioides' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cassiope/cassiope-lycopodioides/). Accessed 2026-07-18.

Cassiope lycopodioides

Cassiope lycopodioides 'Susuki' exhibited at the Alpine Garden Society Cleveland Show by F. and B. Hoyle, April 2023. This amazingly free-flowering specimen won the Farrer Medal for the best plant in the show. Image John Grimshaw.

A prostrate evergreen shrub 1 to 3 in. high but 1 to 3 ft wide; shoots dense, slender, closely covered with tiny appressed ovate, glabrous leaves, and altogether (leaves with stem) only about 1⁄12 in. wide. The leaves resemble those of C. mertensiana in having no groove down the back and thereby differ from those of C. selaginoides. Flowers pendent, solitary, axillary, white, bell-shaped and lily-of-valley-like, 1⁄4 in. long, the stalks thread-like, 1⁄2 to 1 in. long; opening in May and June, with sometimes a supplementary crop in autumn; stamens ten. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 298.

Native of high altitudes in Japan and thence northward to Alaska. A very beautiful little shrub, rare in cultivation, but occasionally offered by nurserymen. It likes cool, moist conditions, a peaty soil and shade during the middle of the day.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

Another probable hybrid of this species, probably with C. fastigiata, is ‘Medusa’, which arose as a self-sown seedling in the garden of the late E. B. Anderson at Porlock in Somerset (Bull. A.G.S., Vol. 41, pp. 141 (illustr.) and 147 (1973)).

'Rigida'

Larger in most of its parts, with the corolla more cylindrical and corolla lobes longer and proportionately narrower than in the type. Introduced from Japan around 1935. (C. l. var. major Stoker).For the hybrid ‘Muirhead’, see C. wardii. C. lycopodioides has also crossed with C. fastigiata to give ‘Randle Cooke’ and ‘Badenoch’.

Contact the editors at