| Andromeda polifolia L. | |||
| |||
| Family | Ericaceae — APG family: Ericaceae | ||
| Description | Dwarf shrub with creeping base and elongate, ascending branches; leaves thick, linear-lanceolate to oblong, with revolute margin, grayish-green above, glaucous beneath, rarely green on both sides (var. céncolor Boiv.); inflorescence subumbel- late; pedicels and calyx red; corolla first pink, in age paler. | ||
| Ecology | Peat bogs. Described from northern Europe. | ||
| Taxonomy notes | Broken line on circumpolar map indicates range of subsp. glaucophylla (Link) Hult. (A. glaucophylla Link). The small, narrow-leaved northern plant is var. acerosa Hartm., described from northern Europe. Some specimens of A. polifolia along the southern coast are coarse, with much larger and broader leaves than var. acerosa. | ||
| Uses | Contains andromedotoxin, a poison causing low blood pressure, breathing diffi- culty, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps. |
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.