Arctostaphylos alpina (L.) Spreng.
 
FamilyEricaceae — APG family: Ericaceae
SynonymsArbutus alpina L., Mairania qlpina (L.) Desv., Arctous alpina (L.) Niedenzu
DescriptionProstrate, densely branched dwarf shrub, with glabrous twigs; leaves thick, obo- vate, obtuse or subacute, cuneate at base, conspicuously reticulate, serrulate, sparsely ciliate; corolla white (greenish-white when young); fruit globose, black.
EcologyDry places, heaths, mostly in the mountains, to over 1,000 meters, but also on tundra. Described from Lapland, Switzerland, and Siberia.
UsesThe leaves turn scarlet in the fall and persist for a long time. The fruit is edible, juicy but insipid; the taste is improved by boiling.
Hultén's Flora About

This is a digital representation of Eric Hultén’s ‘Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants’, which was published by Stanford University Press in 1968. The book was digitized by C. Webb (at UAMN) as part of the Flora of Alaska project, with funding by the US NSF (Grant 1759964 to Ickert-Bond & Webb), and with permission of Stanford University Press. Data and images © 1968 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. Univ. Usage licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. NB: You may find OCR errors; please refer to the hard-copy if in doubt.