ERICACEAE

HEATH FAMILY

Gary D. Wallace, except as specified

Perennial, shrub, tree
Stem: bark often peeling distinctively
Leaves simple, generally cauline, alternate, opposite, rarely whorled, evergreen or deciduous, often leathery, petioled or not; stipules 0
Inflorescence: raceme, panicle, cyme, or flowers solitary, generally bracted; pedicels often with 2 bractlets
Flower generally bisexual, generally radial; sepals generally 4–5, generally free; petals generally 4–5, free or fused; stamens 8–10, free, filaments rarely appendaged, anthers awned or not, dehiscent by pores or slits; nectary generally at ovary base, disk-like; ovary superior or inferior, chambers generally 1–5, placentas axile or parietal, ovules 1–many per chamber, style 1, stigma head- to funnel-like or lobed
Fruit: capsule, drupe, berry
Seeds generally many, sometimes winged
Genera in family: ± 100 genera, 3000 species: generally worldwide except deserts; some cultivated, especially Arbutus, Arctostaphylos, Rhododendron, Vaccinium
Reference: [Wallace 1975 Wasmann J Biol 33:1–88; 1975 Bot Not 128:286–298]
Subfamilies Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Vaccinioideae sometimes treated as families. Nongreen plants obtain nutrition from green plants through fungal intermediates.

LEDUM

LABRADOR TEA

Shrub, generally hairy
Stem decumbent to erect, rooting
Leaves alternate, reflexed in age, evergreen, leathery; margin entire, rolled under or not
Inflorescence: raceme, ± flat-topped, terminal, bracted; bractlets 1–2, deciduous; pedicels not jointed to flower
Flower: sepals 5, fused; petals 5, free except sometimes at base, when corolla ± rotate; stamens 8–10, anthers dehiscent by pores, unawned; ovary superior, chambers 5, placentas axile
Fruit: capsule, septicidal, dehiscent base to tip
Seeds many per chamber, fusiform, unwinged
Species in genus: 2–3 species: n hemisphere
Etymology: (Greek: for plant now known as Cistus )
[Kron & Judd 1990 Syst Bot 15:57–68 (where included in Rhododendron )]