Pink mountain heather

Menziesia empetriformis Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 10: 380. 1811

Plants prostrate to erect, diffusely branched, 0.5-5 dm; young branches sparsely glandular. Leaves ascending, densely imbricate; blade linear, 4-15 × 1-1.5(-2) mm, margins entire or glandular-serrulate, surfaces usually glabrous. Inflorescences corymbiform, 1-14-flowered. Pedicels 5-25 mm, glandular; bracteoles 2. Flowers usually erect; sepals broadly ovate, 2-3 mm, margins ciliate, abaxial surface glabrous; corolla pink, campanulate, not constricted at mouth, 5-8 mm, not glandular, lobes spreading, 1.5-2.5 mm; stamens 10, included; filaments 1.5-3 mm, glabrous; anthers 1.5-2.5 mm; ovary broadly ovoid, 1.5-2 mm, glandular; style exserted, 5-7 mm. Capsules 5-valved, globose, 3-4 mm, glandular.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Moist subalpine and alpine slopes; 1400-3500 m; Alta., B.C., N.W.T., Yukon; Ariz., Calif., Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash., Wyo.

Hybrids between Phyllodoce empetriformis and P. glanduliflora are encountered occasionally where the two species occur together. The hybrids, P. ×intermedia (Hooker) Rydberg, consisting largely of first-generation crosses (F₁ progeny), have a decidedly intermediate floral morphology, combining glandular, mostly nonciliate sepals more than 3 mm long and pinkish, cylindric to ovoid corollas.