''Phyllodoce'' is a small genus of plants in the heather family,

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

. They are known commonly as mountainheaths, mountain heaths, or mountain heathers.''Phyllodoce''.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) They are native to North America and Eurasia,''Phyllodoce''.
Flora of North America, Volume 8. where they have a circumboreal distribution.''Phyllodoce''.
The Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium, UC Berkeley.

Description

Plants of this genus are

subshrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Der ...

s that occur in arctic-alpine regions. They often grow from

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s, the stem bases formed by clumps of old leaf stalks. They have erect or spreading stems, the new shoots covered in glandular hairs, the old ones bare, tough, and shreddy. The leaves are alternately arranged. They have narrow, leathery blades that roll under tightly at the edges. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a solitary flower or an array of up to 30. The flower has a cup- or bell-shaped corolla of five petals that are fused together for at least half their lengths. There are usually ten

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s, which sometimes protrude from the corolla. The fruit is a capsule containing over 100 tiny seeds.

Species

There are four to seven or eight species in genus ''Phyllodoce''. Even after detailed

phylogenetic analyses In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups o ...

the relationships between plants in this genus are still unclear.Ikeda, H., Yakubov, V., Barkalov, V., & Setoguchi, H. (2014)
Molecular evidence for ancient relicts of arctic‐alpine plants in East Asia.
''New Phytologist'', 203(3), 980-988. Species include: * '' Phyllodoce aleutica'' – Aleutian mountain heath * ''

Phyllodoce breweri ''Phyllodoce breweri'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae known by the common names purple mountain heath and Brewer's mountain heather. It is native to California, where it can be found in mountain ranges including the sout ...

'' – purple mountain heath, red mountain heather, Brewer's mountain heath * '' Phyllodoce caerulea'' – blue mountain heath, purple mountain heather * ''

Phyllodoce empetriformis ''Phyllodoce empetriformis'', the pink mountain-heather or pink mountain-heath, is found in mountainous regions of western North America in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. Its southern range includes the Klamath Range in northe ...

'' – pink mountain heath, red mountain heath * '' Phyllodoce glanduliflora'' – yellow mountain heath Hybrids between species also occur. The name ''Phyllodoce'' belongs to one of the sea nymphs of

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2417381 Ericaceae genera Ericoideae