Fetterbush, hurrah-bush

Andromeda lucida Lamarck in J. Lamarck et al., Encycl. 1: 157. 1783; Desmothamnus lucidus (Lamarck) Small

Shrubs, to 2.5(-5) m. Stems erect to arching, usually sharply 3-angled. Leaves persistent; blade narrowly to widely elliptic, obovate, or slightly ovate, 1-8.5(-10.5) × 0.5-4.5(-5.5) cm, rigidly coriaceous, base attenuate or cuneate to rounded, margins entire, usually revolute, apex acuminate to acute, rarely rounded, surfaces scattered, multicellular, glandular short-headed-hairy, not lepidote, otherwise glabrous or hairy on midvein adaxially, intramarginal vein present. Inflorescences fascicles, developing from buds along distal portion of stems of previous year; bracts 1 per flower, linear-lanceolate, to 4 mm. Pedicels glandular-hairy, not lepidote. Flowers: calyx lobes 2-7.5 × 1-2 mm, glandular-hairy, not lepidote; corolla usually pink, sometimes white or red, cylindric (base swollen), 5-9 × 2-5 mm; filaments 3-5 mm, roughened, with 2 well-developed spurs. Capsules ovoid to ovoid- globose, 3-5 × 3-5 mm, apex slightly constricted, glabrous or short-headed-hairy; sutures usually remaining attached to adjacent valve; placentae central to nearly basal. 2n = 24.

Flowering early spring-spring. Moist, acid, pine flatwoods and savannas, streamhead pocosins and baygalls, acid blackwater swamps, shrub bogs and peat-based pocosins, pond margins; 0-200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.; West Indies (Cuba).

Lyonia lucida is occasionally used as an ornamental; it is most closely related to L. mariana. The Cuban populations tend to have slightly longer and more densely hairy calyx lobes than do those of the southeastern United States.