Phyllodoce empetriformis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Ericales |
Family: | Ericaceae |
Genus: | Phyllodoce |
Species: | P. empetriformis |
Binomial name | |
Phyllodoce empetriformis | |
Synonyms | |
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Phyllodoce empetriformis, also known as pink mountain heather, gets its name from its red and pink bell-shaped flowers. It is found along the Rocky Mountains of the Northwestern United States and Western Canada.
Phyllodoce empetriformis is a low matting shrub with distinctive leaves which are pine needle like. It bears attractive flowers in shades of pink and purple.
It is one of the parents of the artificial hybrid × Phyllothamnus erectus, the other being Rhodothamnus chamaecistus . [1]
This common evergreen alpine shrub bears its red-purple flower clustered at the end of the stem. [2] The flowers of the Phyllodoce empetriformis can grow in clusters of many to as little as one. [3] The leaves alternate on the stem and roll under themselves so tightly they resemble pine needles. It is a fairly short shrub that grows from 10–40 cm tall. [4] The dwarf shrub can survive in subalpine to alpine regions because of their ability to minimize water loss through evaporation. [4] It thrives under heavy snow cover which then waters the plant in the summer when the snow melts. [5]
Phyllodoce empetriformis is helpful in eliminating mountainous soil erosion. The heather acts as a mountain canopy and collects stone-free soil either from the wind or that has been washed in. This stimulates vegetative growth and may take up to one hundred years to reach full mature status. Pink mountain heather is easily damaged by natural causes such as a dry winter. It can also be affected by humans like getting stepped on. This can result in the decrease of coverage on a mountain and any slight wind can erode the loose sediment away. [6]
Pink mountain heather can often be mistaken for Empetrum nigrum (crowberry), [4] although Phyllodoce empetriformis does not produce berries. A closely related species is the Phyllodoce glanduliflora (yellow mountain heather). This species can be identified by its yellow, urn-shaped flowers. Pink and yellow mountain heather can form a hybrid called Phyllodoceintermedia. [7] It produces flowers that are white with pink sepals.
Mahonia aquifolium, the Oregon grape or holly-leaved barberry, is a species of flowering plant in the family Berberidaceae, native to western North America. It is an evergreen shrub growing 1–3 meters tall and 1.5 m (5 ft) wide, with pinnate leaves consisting of spiny leaflets, and dense clusters of yellow flowers in early spring, followed by dark bluish-black berries.
Pinus albicaulis, known by the common names whitebark pine, white bark pine, white pine, pitch pine, scrub pine, and creeping pine, is a conifer tree native to the mountains of the western United States and Canada, specifically subalpine areas of the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range, Pacific Coast Ranges, and Rocky Mountains. It shares the common name "creeping pine" with several other plants.
Pinus jeffreyi, also known as Jeffrey pine, Jeffrey's pine, yellow pine and black pine, is a North American pine tree. It is mainly found in California, but also in the westernmost part of Nevada, southwestern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is named in honor of its botanist documenter John Jeffrey.
Pinus contorta, with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, but is rare in lowland rain forests. Like all pines, it is an evergreen conifer.
Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the most widely distributed pine species in North America.
The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, is diverse and complex. The combination of climate, topography, moisture, and soils influences the distribution of ecological communities across an elevation gradient from 500 to 14,500 feet. Biotic zones range from scrub and chaparral communities at lower elevations, to subalpine forests and alpine meadows at the higher elevations. Particular ecoregions that follow elevation contours are often described as a series of belts that follow the length of the Sierra Nevada. There are many hiking trails, paved and unpaved roads, and vast public lands in the Sierra Nevada for exploring the many different biomes and ecosystems.
Dicentra formosa is a flowering plant with fern-like leaves and an inflorescence of drooping pink, purple, yellow or cream flowers native to the Pacific Coast of North America.
× Phyllothamnus is a hybrid genus in the family Ericaceae with one known species, × Phyllothamnus erectus, an artificial hybrid between Phyllodoce empetriformis and Rhodothamnus chamaecistus, first described in 1850 as Bryanthus × erectus.
Phyllodoce is a small genus of plants in the heather family, Ericaceae. They are known commonly as mountainheaths, mountain heaths, or mountain heathers. They are native to North America and Eurasia, where they have a circumboreal distribution.
Iris tenax is a species of Iris, known by the common names tough-leaved iris, Oregon iris, or more colloquially, flag.
The Ecology of the North Cascades is heavily influenced by the high elevation and rain shadow effects of the mountain range. The North Cascades is a section of the Cascade Range from the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River in Washington, United States, to the confluence of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers in British Columbia, Canada, where the range is officially called the Cascade Mountains but is usually referred to as the Canadian Cascades. The North Cascades Ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion in the Commission for Environmental Cooperation's classification system.
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.
Ribes cereum is a species of currant known by the common names wax currant and squaw currant; the pedicellare variety is known as whisky currant. The species is native to western North America.
Vaccinium membranaceum is a species within the group of Vaccinium commonly referred to as huckleberry. This particular species is known by the common names thinleaf huckleberry, tall huckleberry, big huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, and (ambiguously) as "black huckleberry".
Xanthisma coloradoense is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Colorado tansyaster. It is native to Colorado and Wyoming in the United States.
Phyllodoce caerulea, known as blue heath in British English and purple mountain heather or blue mountainheath in American English, is an evergreen species of dwarf shrub that grows up to around 15 cm (6 in) tall, and bears clusters of 2–6 purple flowers. It is native to boreal regions around the Northern Hemisphere, but with large gaps in its distribution.
North Mountain, a wildland in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of western Virginia, has been recognized by the Wilderness Society as a special place worthy of protection from logging and road construction. The Wilderness Society has designated the area as a "Mountain Treasure".
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