Lyonia lucida (Lam.) K.Koch

  • Family

    Ericaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Lyonia lucida (Lam.) K.Koch

  • Primary Citation

    Dendrologie 2: 118. 1872

  • Basionym

    Andromeda lucida Lam.

  • Common Names

    clavellina

  • Description

    Description: Small to moderate-sized evergreen shrub to 2.5(-5) m tall, with brownish to gray, shallowly and longitudinally furrowed bark, usually spreading vegetatively by horizontal underground rhizomes; twigs usually sharply 3-angled, slender, erect to arching, with few short-headed hairs, otherwise glabrous to moderately pubescent; buds ovoid, 1-3 x 0.7-1.5 mm, with 2 to 6 imbricate bud scales depending upon age. Leaf blades narrowly to widely elliptic, obovate, or slightly ovate, 1-8.5(-10.5) x 0.5-4.5(-5.5) cm, sometimes quite reduced in size toward branch apices, ± flat, quite coriaceous, ca. 0.2-0.45 mm thick; base attenuate or cuneate to rounded; apex acuminate to acute (rounded); margin entire, usually revolute; venation modified brochidodromous, 3o veins ± reticulate; adaxial surface sparsely covered with short-headed glandular hairs, otherwise ± glabrescent (sparsely pubescent on basal portion of midvein), 2o and 3o veins usually obscure to slightly raised and visible; abaxial surface with sparse short-headed glandular hairs, otherwise glabrous, the 3o and higher order veins usually obscure, the 2o veins slightly raised and visible, extending straight or slightly arching toward margin where they join to form intramarginal vein; petiole 1-8 mm long, with short-headed hairs, otherwise glabrous or pubescent adaxially; flower buds above vegetative buds. Inflorescences fasciculate, to 10-(to 15-)flowered; pedicels slender to stout, 2.5-13 mm long, with short-headed glandular hairs, otherwise glabrous to densely pubescent; bracteoles opposite, basal, triangular to ovate, 1-2.5 x ca. 1.5 mm, often persistent; floral bracts to ca. 4 mm long, similar to bracteoles in shape. Flowers 5-merous; calyx lobes persistent, elongate-triangular, 2-7.5 x 1-2 mm, usually with acute apices, usually swollen at base; adaxial side very sparsely to moderately pubescent, abaxial side with scattered short-headed glandular hairs, otherwise glabrous to moderately pubescent; corolla cylindrical with swollen base, often appearing merely cylindrical after drying, pink, less commonly white or red, 5-9 x 2.5-5 mm, abaxially with very sparse short-headed glandular hairs, often appearing glabrous; filaments roughened, 3-5 mm long, with 2 usually well developed spurs below anther-filament junction; anthers 0.8-1.5 mm long; ovary glabrous or with few short-headed glandular hairs, placentae central to nearly basal. Capsules ovoid to ovoid-globose (slightly urn-shaped), 3-5 x 3-5 mm, glabrous or with very few short-headed hairs, with pale, slightly to strongly thickened sutures that usually remain attached to an adjacent valve during dehiscence; seeds 0.7-1.3 mm long.

    Distribution: United States, chiefly Coastal Plain from SE Virginia to Florida, west to Louisiana, also in Cuba (Pinar del Río, Isle of Pines), chiefly in white-sand Pinus savannas and near pond margins. Flowering mainly late March to early May in SE U.S.; chiefly November and December in Cuba.

    Type: Lectotype, P-LA (ICD 6207.404: III.2).

    Illustration: Judd (1995), fig. 4.

    Local name: Cuba: clavellina

  • Floras and Monographs

    Lyonia lucida (Lam.) K.Koch: [Book] Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

    Lyonia lucida (Lam.) K.Koch: [Article] 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.