Dwarf huckleberry

Vaccinium dumosum Andrews, Bot. Repos. 2: plate 112. 1800; Gaylussacia dumosa var. hirtella (W. T. Aiton) A. Gray; G. dumosa var. humilis (P. Watson) Zabel; G. hirtella (W. T. Aiton) Torrey & A. Gray; Lasiococcus dumosus (Andrews) Small; V. dumosum var. humile P. Watson; V. hirtellum W. T. Aiton

Plants 1-3(-4) dm, forming small colonies; branches ascending; twigs of current season pale green, stipitate-glandular-hairy. Leaves: petiole 0.5-1.5 mm; blade light green abaxially, shiny dark green adaxially, oblanceolate to obovate, 2.5-4 × 0.3-1 cm, subcoriaceous, base cuneate, margins entire, (scattered stipitate-glandular-hairy and ciliate, 2-5 cilia per mm), apex obtuse to subacute, mucronate, surfaces scattered stipitate-glandular-hairy and sessile-glandular, adaxial surface sometimes glabrescent. Inflorescences erect or arching, 5-8-flowered, bracteate, 3-6 cm, stipitate-glandular-hairy; bracts persistent, leaflike, expanding to 5-12 mm, equaling or longer than pedicels, hairy and stipitate-glandular-hairy. Pedicels 2-3 mm, hairy and stipitate-glandular-hairy; bracteoles 1-2, 2-5 mm. Flowers: sepals 5, 2 mm, sparsely to moderately hairy (hairs 0.2-0.3 mm) and stipitate-glandular-hairy; petals 5, corolla white to pink, sometimes reddish, campanulate, 3-5 mm, lobes triangular, 1-1.5 mm; filaments 0.3-0.5 mm, sparsely hairy; anthers included, 3-3.5 mm, thecae divergent distally; ovary stipitate-glandular-hairy, hairs 0.2-0.3 mm. Drupes juicy, insipid, black, 6-8 mm diam., stipitate-glandular. Seeds 1.5-1.8 mm.

Flowering late spring-early summer. Xeric sandhills, xeric to dry pine-oak uplands, oak barrens and heaths, mesic to wet pine flatwoods and pine barrens, dry to moist pine savannas, sometimes in seepage communities; 0-1200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Gaylussacia dumosa and G. bigeloviana have been confused due to a reliance on insufficient characters to distinguish them and due to descriptions and ranges that were based partly on misidentified specimens. Gaylussacia dumosa is a low shrub of the coastal plain and lower piedmont, with scattered occurrences in the upper piedmont and at moderate elevations in the mountains.