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| Photo
by Renee Brecht |
Britton and Brown. See
credits below. |
| Botanical name: |
Leiophyllum buxifolium |
| Common
name: |
Sand myrtle
|
| Synonomy |
| Dendrium buxifolium
(Berg.) Desv. |
|
Leiophyllum buxifolium
(Berg.) Ell. var. hugeri (Small) Schneid.
|
|
Leiophyllum buxifolium
(Berg.) Ell. var. prostratum (Loud.) Gray
|
|
Leiophyllum hugeri
(Small) K. Schum.
|
|
Leiophyllum lyonii
Sweet
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| Group: |
Dicot
|
| Family: |
Ericaceae |
| Growth
Type: |
Subshrub/shrub |
| Duration: |
Perennial |
| Plant
height: |
6"-3'
|
| Flower
color: |
white; in bud, a rose-pink and
white. 5 petalled. |
| Flower
size: |
small, in terminal clusters; lavender
stamens
|
| Flowering/fruiting time |
Fl. early May (rarely late April) to
early June; Fr. early July through summer
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| Habitat: |
damp open, sandy areas in the heart
of the pine barrens of New Jersey
|
| Range in
New Jersey: |
Frequent in the damp sand of the Pine
Barrens, usually in open situations, finding here the northern limit of
its range
|
| Heritage ranking if any |
n/a |
| Misc.: |
USDA
lists as facultative upland species: Usually occurs in non-wetlands
(estimated probability 67%-99%), but occasionally found on wetlands
(estimated probability 1%-33%).
Stone notes: "This curious little evergreen, like a minature Box-bush,
is typical of the very center of the Pines and does not range in New
Jersey beyond the limits of this region. The white flowers, which it
bears in great abundance, prove very attractive to various insects, and
entomologists frequently haunt the patches of Sand Myrtle when
searching for rarities."(616)
Boyd notes "low, spreading, with many scraggly stems and branches. Bark
rough, shreddy, brown. Leaves almost opposite, crowded, ovate, shiny
dark green, leathery, evergreen."(126)
"It is in a monotypic North American genus (a genus consisting of a
single species). L. buxifolium is placed in the family Ericaceae
because of its pollen structure; however, its flower rather resembles
species from the Diapensiaceae family.
L. buxifolium is geographically fragmented; it occurs in southern New
Jersey (pine barrens), west into the mountains of the Carolinas,
Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, and in northern Georgia (var. prostratum).
In North Carolina and South Carolina it can be found on coastal
plains." Center
for Plant Conservation
Genus Leiophyllum (Greek, leios, smooth, and phyllon, leaf). Species buxifolium (with leaves of box, Buxux) |
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