Plant Families: Heath

I hate to do this to you, but I'm going to have to write some of my vinegary Plant Families articles. It's still a rainy night in mid-January on the southern coast of Washington, I've only just finished writing my second knotweed article, and my wife and I are packing to move, we just don't know where to yet. So please bear with me...

If I didn't have a 400-word minimum to be wary of in writing these articles, I'd just go ahead and list some of the species in this family; they would speak for the whole clan, I think. Maybe I'll list them in any case; it'll give you an idea how little I need to say about such a popular family.

Members of the Heath Family include Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens), Mountain Heather (Cassiope mertensiana), Pink Mountain Heather (Phyllodoce empetriformis), Flame Azalea (Rhododenron calendulaceum), Pink Azalea (R. nudiflorum), Western Azalea (R. occidentale), Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), and Cranberry (V. macrocarpon). Pretty impressive, huh? And that's just an appetizer.

It's a family of shrubs and woody perennials, often festooned with showy flowers. And after the flowers, many of the species produce edible fruit. Flowers in this family are radially or bilaterally symmetrical, with 4 or 5 united sepals, and the same number of united petals, often forming an urn, or the shape of a Chinese lantern.

There are more than 3,500 species in about 125 genera. They often prefer acidic soil in temperate regions, which is exactly where I have crossed paths with them in Ohio, along Lake Michigan, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Sierra Nevadas, and the Cascades. They are the sort of wild plants that make you think, when you find them in the woods or on a mountain slope, why would somebody plant all these ornamentals out here, in the wild?

As for some other examples...

Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uba-ursi), a low, trailing evergreen shrub, can be found over much of the U.S. and Canada, and as far north as some arctic regions. In the west it is also known as Kinnikinnick, and old Indian name used for many tobacco substitutes. The generic name is from the Greek for "bear" and "grape," while uva means "a bunch of grapes" and ursus means "bear." (Does Ursa Major, the Great Bear ring a bell?)

Salal (Gaultheria shallon) is a widespread species from British Columbia to southern California. Along the coast of southern Washington it is abundant in the woods (as are rhododendron species.) Coastal Native Americans once ate the fruit, and it is still a food source for wildlife.

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