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, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Habit: Shrub, small tree, coarsely branched, non- and/or glandular-hairy. Stem: erect. Leaf: alternate, evergreen, serrate. Inflorescence: raceme, in fall, bracted; pedicel jointed to flower, bractlets 2, +- basal. Flower: sepals 5, fused at base; petals 5, fused, [cylindric to] urn-shaped; stamens 10, anthers dehiscing by pores, awns 4, [elongate to] vestigial, filaments +- straight, with hairs, papillae [or only papillae]; ovary superior, chambers 5, placentas axile, stigma truncate [or head-like/peltate]. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal, erect, persistent after seed dispersal, dehiscing tip to base. Seed: many per chamber, small, generally winged.
Etymology: (Greek: name for a princess of Babylon)
eFlora Treatment Author: Walter S. Judd
Reference: Waselkov & Judd 2008 Brittonia 60:382--397