178 HANDBOOK 14 8, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



14. Leaves with 1 main midrib. 



15. Leaf margins entire. [Alternate 15, p. 189.] 

 16. Under leaf-surfaces (often also leafstalks ;> young 

 twigs, bud scales and seed pods) dotted with tiny 

 yellow resin drops (glistening in the sun), whitened 

 (glaucous) ; upper leaf-surfaces dark green, finely 

 crinkly with vein network; leaves oblong to broadly 

 egg-shaped, to 2 inches long, abruptly pin-pointed at 

 tip, clustered near branch tips, fragrant; leaf margins 

 not rolled under; end buds larger than side buds, with 

 spirally overlapping bud scales, producing umbrella- 

 like clusters of small white flowers; petals 5, separate; 

 stamens 10, with long stalks white-hairy below; each 

 anther sac with pore near tip; seed pods (capsules) 

 splitting up from base along partitions between their 5 

 cells; seeds tiny, white, long-tailed; erect shrubs to 6 

 feet high in favorable sites; probably somewhat 

 poisonous to livestock if browsed; wet mountain 

 meadows or subalpine bogs, Cascades; Wallowa and 

 Blue Mts., ne. Oreg., not reported from se. Wash. 

 western ledum, or smooth Labrador-tea (Ledum 



glandulosum). i3 

 16. Under leaf-surfaces not resin-dotted. 

 17. Leaf margins rolled under. 



18. Leaves dark green and shiny resinous on upper 

 surface, white- or yellowish-hairy on under 

 surface, aromatic, single or clustered near tips of 

 spurlike twigs; twigs brown, whitish-hairy, soon 

 gray and smooth; flowers in leaf axils near twig 

 tips; petals lacking; calyx soft-hairy, abruptly 

 flaring top part falling after stamens shed pollen, 

 tubular lower part persistent around long-, 

 twisted-, feathery-tailed "seed" (achene) ; tall, 

 straggly shrubs or small trees with hard, brittle, 

 mahogany-colored wood; warm, dry, rather rocky 

 ridges or slopes in pine woods openings or with 

 sagebrush, mt. areas, e. Oreg., Blue Mts., se. 

 Wash. 

 curlleaf cercocarpus (Cercocarpus ledifolius). u 

 18. Leaves (as well as rest of plant) densely white- 

 (aging rusty-) hairy with both star-shaped and 

 straight hairs, linear, to 2 inches long, erect, often 

 with smaller leaves clustered in their axils, 

 winter-persistent; seed leaves (cotyledons) broad, 

 green; scaly winter buds lacking; pollen- and 



43 C. Leo Hitchcock in a recent paper, The Ledum Glandulosum Complex (Lean. 

 West. Bot, 8 (1): 1-8. 1956.), states (p. 4), ". . there is a complete transition 

 between 'columbianum' and L. glandulosum, . ."; he regards L. columbianum 

 Piper as a subspecies of L. glandulosum. 



44 In southern Oregon, curlleaf cercocarpus sometimes crossbreeds with longtail 

 birchleaf cercocarpus (Cercocarpus betuloides var. macrourus), producing hybrids 

 with characters intermediate between the two parents. See p. 193 for illustration. 



