Arctostaphylos

• Authority

  Luteyn, James L., et al. 1995. Ericaceae, Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae P.P.). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 560. (Published by NYBG Press)

• Family

  Ericaceae

• Scientific Name

  Arctostaphylos

• Type

  Type species. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (Linnaeus) K. P. J. Sprengel (Arbutus uva-ursi Linnaeus) (typ. cons.). Named from the Greek arktos (bear, or the north) and staphyle (a bunch of grapes).

• Synonyms

  Uva ursi Miller, Xerobotrys, Schizococcus, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng., Arbutus uva-ursi L., Daphnidostaphylis

• Description

  Genus Description - Prostrate, creeping and mat-forming evergreen terrestrial shrubs, sometimes rooting along the branches, to erect, spreading or mounding shrubs (-small trees) to 4(-5) m tall; bark smooth to slightly fissured, often exfoliating, flaking, peeling, or shredding; the outer bark sometimes thin and papery, when lost the surface below quite smooth; plants with indumentum of eglandular and/or glandular trichomes varying in persistence and distribution. Leaves vertically oriented, unifacial with stomata on both surfaces, or horizontally oriented on prostrate branches, bifacial with stomata limited to lower surface, blades more or less flat, coriaceous, margins entire. Inflorescences terminal, racemose, 5-15 flowers per inflorescence; floral bracts present at base of pedicels, small, to ca. 6 mm long; pedicels bracteolate at base. Flowers typically 5-merous; calyx continuous with pedicel, much smaller than corolla at anthesis, drying but persistent in fruit, lobes equal, separate or slightly imbricate at anthesis; corollas urceolate, white to pink, lobes short, to ca. 1/5 the length of the corollas, imbricate before anthesis, glabrous or with sparse trichomes internally; stamens (8-) 10, equal, included, the filaments dilated near base, sparsely to moderately villous; anthers ovoid, laterally compressed, with two dorsal appendages (spurs) attached opposite the attachment to the filament, dehiscence terminal to somewhat introrse by two pores/slits to nearly 1/2 as long as the anthers, attached by the porate end, versatile; ovary superior, smooth, without papillae, glabrous, placentation axile, ovules solitary in each locule; ovary sessile on a weakly 10-lobed or ribbed hypogynous disk-like nectary; style straight, included; stigma ca. same diam, as style, weakly lobed. Fruit drupaceous, berry-like, oblate-spheroidal or depressed-globose, smooth, without papillae, glabrous, yellow, orange tan-brown to brown or red at maturity, nutlets (4-) 5-7(-10), separable or irreglarly united, carinate, corrugate; chromosome number n = 13, 2n-26 in Neotropical taxa (Niehaus & Wong, 1971).

• Discussion

  The map (Fig. 1) follows the one-degree square method in which one dot represents the presence of the species in a degree square.

  Because of their use in population studies, most Diggs collections are numbered Diggs et al. 3795a, 3795b, 3795c, etc. The lower case letters represent the different individuals of a local population collected from the same locality at the same time. However, in the lists of specimens cited and in the list of exsiccatae, collecting numbers are given without the lower case letters.