Aleutian mountain heather

Menziesia aleutica Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 2: 202. 1825

Plants ascending or erect, branched, 1-2.5 dm; young branches glandular, older branches glabrous. Leaves spreading, not imbricate; blade linear, 4-12 × 1-1.1 mm, margins serrulate, surfaces often glandular. Inflorescences umbellate or corymbiform, 1-14-flowered. Pedicels 10 mm, glandular; bracteoles 2. Flowers nodding; sepals linear to linear-lanceolate, 2.5-3.5 mm, margins ciliate, glandular-hairy abaxially; corolla yellow or yellowish green, urceolate, constricted at mouth, 5-8 mm, glabrous, lobes reflexed, ca. 1 mm; stamens 9-10, included; filaments 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; anthers brown on drying, 0.3-0.5 mm; ovary globose, 1.5-2 mm, glandular-hairy; style included, 2-3 mm. Capsules 5-valved, broadly ovoid, 3-4 × 2.5-3.5 mm, glandular-hairy.

Flowering Jun-Aug. Tundra heaths and snowbanks; 0-1700 m; Alaska; e Asia.

E. Hultén (1941-1950, vol. 8) reported hybrids between Phyllodoce aleutica and P. caerulea from the Aleutian Islands, and between P. aleutica and P. granduliflora from the Alaska mainland.