Cassiope 'Askival Stormbird'

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Ericaceae

Plants usually woody, or herbs, sometimes lacking chlorophyll. Leaves spiral , sometimes decussate, margin often toothed . Inflorescence racemose; bracteoles paired , basal. Flowers (4 or) 5-merous. Calyx imbricate. Corolla connate , imbricate. Stamens 10, sometimes with spurs or awns , dehiscing by pores , pollen in tetrads , rarely single. Ovary superior or inferior, placentation axile , rarely parietal , often many ovules per locule. Style ± as long as corolla, slender. Fruit a capsule or berry, rarely a drupe; calyx persistent.

About 125 genera and 4000 species: widely distributed in temperate and subarctic regions, also at high elevations in tropical regions ; 22 genera and 826 species (524 endemic) in China.

The Monotropoideae are here included in the Ericaceae; previously in FRPS (56: 157 216. 1990), they were treated as the Pyrolaceae. Chiogenes, recorded from China in FRPS (57(3) : 69 71. 1991), is here included in Gaultheria. Over the last half century, the Empetraceae have usually been separated from, but closely associated with, the Ericaceae. In their ecology, leaf morphology and insertion , rusts, embryology, stamen anatomy, etc. , they largely agree with that family . Molecular data place Empetrum and its relatives firmly within the Ericaceae, and in particular within the subfamily Ericoideae, in agreement with phytochemical and palynological data, and there they are best recognized as a separate tribe . There are distinctive features of the Empetreae that were responsible for their past familial status, e.g. , reduced perianth with separate members , low ovule number, enlarged stigmas, etc. However, these are likely to be derived features associated with wind pollination. See Kron et al. (Bot. Rev. 68: 335 423. 2002) and the recent treatment of the Ericaceae by Stevens et al. (in Kubitzki, Fam. Gen. Vasc. Pl. 6: 145 194. 2004) .

Several genera and many species are ornamentals . Some fruits of Vaccinium in N China are sweet and edible, but of no particular value to humans. Some species of Chamaedaphne, Craibiodendron, Leucothoë, Lyonia, Pieris, and Rhododendron contain more or less toxic diterpenes, which are harmful to humans or domestic animals.[1]

Genus Cassiope

Shrubs evergreen , dwarf . Stems procumbent or ascending . Leaves decussate, sessile, appressed and crowded, imbricate, usually 4-ranked. Leaf blade small, entire or fimbriate-ciliate, veinless, 1-channeled on back, sometimes plane or convex . Flowers solitary, axillary , pendulous. Pedicel slender, base bracteate ; bracteoles absent. Flowers usually 5-merous. Calyx lobes imbricate, subfree. Corolla white or pink, campanulate , lobed or cleft ; lobes recurved. Stamens included ; filaments straight, flattened; anthers ovate , with two long recurved awns. Ovary superior, glabrous , with many ovules per locule. Capsule depressed-globose, each valve 2-cleft at apex. Seeds many, minute, wingless.

About 17 species: circumboreal , extending south into China, the Himalayan region, Japan, Russia, and W North America; 11 species (six endemic) in China.[2]

Taxonomy

Notes

Parentage: C. lycopodioides × C. selaginoides

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Similar Species

Members of the genus Cassiope

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 9 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. lycopodioides (Clubmoss Bell-Heather) · C. lycopodioides var. cristapilosa (Clubmoss Mountain Heather) · C. lycopodioides var. lycopodioides (Clubmoss Mountain Heather) · C. mertensiana (Western Bell-Heather) · C. mertensiana var. gracilis (Western Moss Heather) · C. mertensiana var. mertensiana (Western Moss Heather) · C. tetragona (Arctic Bell-Heather) · C. tetragona var. saximontana (White Arctic Mountain Heather) · C. tetragona var. tetragona (White Arctic Mountain Heather)

More Info

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Further Reading

• Chou Yiliang & Zhou Ruichang. 1990. Pyrolaceae. In: Fang Wenpei & Hu Wenkuang, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 56: 157216
• Fang Rhuicheng, Yang Hanbi & Chin Tsenli. 1999. Ericaceae (1). In: Fang Rhuicheng, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(1): 1213
• Hsu Tingzhi, Gao Baochun, Fang Rhuicheng & Huang Shuhua. 1991. Ericaceae (3). In: Fang Rhuicheng, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(3): 1207
• Hu Wenkuang, Hu Lincheng, Fang Mingyuan & He Mingyou. 1994. Ericaceae (2). In: Hu Lincheng, Fang Mingyuan, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 57(2): 1438
• Ming Tien lu. 1980. Empetraceae. In: Cheng Mien & Ming Tien lu, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 45(1): 6062.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Identifiers

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1851453

Footnotes

1. Mingyuan Fang, Ruizheng Fang, Mingyou He, Linzheng Hu, Hanbi Yang, Haining Qin, Tianlu Min, David F. Chamberlain, Peter Stevens, Gary D. Wallace & Arne Anderberg "Ericaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 242. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Mingyuan Fang, Ruizheng Fang, Mingyou He, Linzheng Hu, Hanbi Yang, Haining Qin, Tianlu Min, David F. Chamberlain, Peter Stevens, Gary D. Wallace & Arne Anderberg "Cassiope". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 456. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.