Common Name: HEATH FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree. Stem: bark often peeling distinctively. Leaf: simple or 0, generally cauline, alternate, opposite (whorled), evergreen or deciduous, often leathery, petioled or not; stipules 0. Inflorescence: raceme, panicle, cyme, or flowers 1, terminal or axillary, generally bracted; pedicel often with 2 bractlets. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial, bell-shaped, cylindric, or urn-shaped; sepals generally (0)4--5, generally free; petals generally (0)4--5, free or fused; stamens (2--5)8--10, free, filaments rarely appendaged, anthers dehiscing by pores or slits, awns 0 or 2(4), seemingly abaxial, reduced or elongate, generally curved; nectary generally present at ovary base, generally 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. Seed: generally many, winged or not.
Genera In Family: +- 100 genera, 3000 species: generally worldwide except deserts; some cultivated, especially Arbutus, Arctostaphylos, Rhododendron, Vaccinium. Note: Monophyletic only if Empetraceae included, as treated here. Ledum included in Rhododendron. Non-green plants obtain nutrition from green plants through fungal intermediates.
eFlora Treatment Author: Gary D. Wallace, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Gary D. Wallace, Thomas J. Rosatti.

Habit: Perennial herb, non-green, glabrous to glandular-hairy; roots brittle, main often elongate. Stem: 0. Leaf: 0. Inflorescence: raceme-like or flowers 1; emerging from ground nodding, erect in fruit, persistent after seed dispersal, bracted; pedicel generally recurved to spreading when anthers open, erect in fruit, jointed to flower, bractlets 1--2. Flower: sepals generally 5, free; petals generally 5, free, oblong-cup-shaped, +- bulged at base; stamens generally 10, included, anthers dehiscing by 1 or 2 slits, unawned; nectary lobes (8)10, +- clasping stamen bases; ovary superior, lines of dehiscence evident, chambers (4)5, placentas axile. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal, erect, dehiscing tip to base. Seed: many per chamber, fusiform.
Species In Genus: 2 species: northern hemisphere. Etymology: (Greek: 1 direction, from 1-sided inflorescence)