Shrubs or small trees with alternate leaves and small perfect flowers; calyx tube adnate to the ovary, 4—5-lobed or cleft; corolla 4—5-lobed, rarely divided into single petals, deciduous; stamens twice as many as the corolla lobes, inserted at the base; filaments mostly short; anthers attached on the back 2-celled; fruit a globose berry or drupe.
| Erect deciduous shrubs; corolla cylindric or urn-shaped | |
| white, pink or greenish. | Vaccinium. |
| Low evergreen shrub; corolla open-campanulate, pink; | |
| berry red. | Vitis-Idæa. |
| Trailing or creeping evergreen shrubs. | |
| Corolla short-campanulate, white; berry white. | Chiogenes. |
| Corolla with spreading curved petals, pink; berry red | Oxycoccus. |
Menziesia ferruginea Smith. (½ Nat.)
Menziesia.
Kalmia microphylla (Hook.) Heller. (⅔ Nat.)
Dwarf Swamp-Laurel.
A shrub 3—7 inches high, much branched and nearly smooth throughout. Leaves obovate or oblong, cuneate, obtuse or acute, green and shining on both sides, nearly sessile, serrulate, with close bluntish teeth. Flowers white or pink, small bell-shaped, ⅛ of an inch long, mostly solitary in the axils and longer than their drooping pedicels; berry ¼ of an inch or more in diameter, blue with a bloom.
On slopes and in alpine meadows throughout the Rockies at the higher altitudes; flowers appearing with the leaves in early June.
Stems erect with numerous slender, strict, green branches and branchlets, 3—18 inches high. Leaves ovate or oval, ½ an inch long or less, bright green. Flowers ovate, ⅛ of an inch long, white or pink, 5-lobed, solitary in the axils of the leaves; berries small, bright red.
On slopes and in alpine meadows throughout the Rockies at the higher altitudes; flowering during June.
A straggling branched shrub, 3—12 feet high, the branches slender, twigs smooth, joints sharply angled. Leaves oval, short-petioled, smooth on both sides, green above, pale and glaucous beneath, rounded at both ends or somewhat narrowed at the base, thin, sometimes spine tipped, entire or nearly so, 1—2 inches long. Flowers commonly solitary in the axils on rather recurved pedicels; corolla pink or white, ovoid, ¼ of an inch or more long; berries blue with a bloom ½ an inch in diameter.
In the beds of snow slides, occasionally in the Rockies, and abundant through the Selkirks, where it is also found in the woods; flowering in May.
Vaccinium erythrococcum Rydb. (⅔ Nat.)
Alpine Bilberry.
Vaccinium ovalifolium Smith. Blueberry. (½ Nat.)
Vaccinium globulare Rydb. Thin-Leaved Bilberry.
A branching shrub 1—3 feet high, nearly smooth throughout, stems round, only the youngest twigs slightly angled, bark grey and somewhat shreddy. Leaves broadly oval or obovate, obtuse to acute, somewhat pale beneath, veiny, sharply and finely serrate, ½—1½ inches long. Flowers on pedicels ½ an inch long; calyx teeth almost obsolete; corolla depressed globose, frequently more than ¼ of an inch in diameter, greenish-white; berry dark purple, ¼ of an inch in diameter.
In beds of snow slides and in woods in the valleys of the Selkirks; flowering during June.
A low evergreen shrub with creeping stems, the branches erect, 3—8 inches high, nearly smooth. Leaves thick and leathery, crowded, green and shining above, paler and black-dotted beneath, ovate or oval, short-petioled and entire or sparingly serrulate ¼—¾ of an inch long, the margins revolute. Flowers in short terminal 1-sided racemes or clusters, nodding, longer than their pedicels; corolla white or pink nearly ⅛ of an inch long, open-campanulate, 4-lobed; berries dark red, acid, nearly ½ an inch in diameter.
In bogs and moist mossy places throughout the Rockies; flowering during June.
Creeping, branches rough-hairy, slender, 3—12 inches long. Leaves leathery, persistent, oval, ovate or slightly obovate, acute at the apex, rounded or narrowed at the base, dark green and smooth above, sprinkled with stiff, brown hairs beneath and on the revolute, entire margins; ¼ to nearly ½ an inch long. Flowers white, ovoid, about ⅛ of an inch long, few, solitary in the axils, nodding, on the lower side of the creeping stems; berry about ¼ of an inch in diameter, white, bristly, aromatic.
Throughout the Rockies at the lower elevations, growing in moss and on damp, decaying logs; flowering in May.
Stems slender, creeping and rooting at the nodes, 6—18 inches long; branches ascending or erect 1—6 inches high. Leaves thick, evergreen, ovate, entire, acutish at the apex, rounded or cordate at the base, dark green above, white beneath, ⅛ of an inch or less long, ½ as wide, the margins revolute. Flowers 1—6, from terminal scaly buds, nodding on slender erect pedicels; corolla pink, ⅓ of an inch broad, the petals curled backwards; stamens and style protruding; berry globose, ¼ of an inch or more in diameter, acid, often spotted when young.
In sphagnum bogs throughout the Rockies, though not common; flowering during July.