This shrub grows between 1 and 2 feet high; it is branching, leafy, and slender, with a woody fibre. The bark on the young shoots is smooth and firm, when old it is rough and inclined to split.
The leaf is evergreen. In shape it is long and needle-like, a resemblance caused by its closely rolled edges which give it a stiff erectness of bearing; the texture is firm and dry, its upper surface being slightly grained, though it is smooth underneath. In color it is a dark, rich green, pale beneath. The leaves are set, on very short tawny stems, close together, and alternately.
The mouth of the small bell-shaped flower is almost closed; its oval form is diversified by the little pinched folds which run up from between its 5 little tips. In color it is a rosy tinted white; the little 5-parted calyx being colored like the corolla. The bells are set on short white foot-stems that are enfolded by tiny greenish-pink bracts; they are close gathered in small groups, and nod at the ends of the branches.
The fine-pointed leaves, whatever the angle from which they spring, all turn upward, giving a curious flat and conventionally decorative effect to the branches.
MARSH ANDROMEDA: Andromeda polifolia.
| Privet Andromeda. | Andromeda ligustrina. |
Found in moist wayside thickets and swamps; blossoming in June.
The tough, woody stalk, erect, branching, and leafy, is covered with a smooth, light gray bark. It grows from 3 to 6, or more, feet in height.
The small leaves are from 1 to 2 inches long, tapering at both ends; they are alternate, on very short foot-stems. The margin is entire, or very finely notched, surface smooth, and texture firm. Color, green.