Leucothoe axillaris

Plants 1-2 m, branches spread-ing. Leaves: petiole 5-10 mm; blade oblong, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 3-8 cm, margins entire or spinulose-serrulate, apex acute to abruptly short-acuminate, abaxial surface glabrous or sparsely hairy. Inflorescences fascicled or solitary, sessile, dense, 8-30-flowered, 2-4(-5) cm; bracts ± deciduous, ovate, 2-2.5 mm. Pedicels 2.2-2.5 mm. Flowers: sepals whitish, broadly ovate, 1.5-2 mm, apex obtuse or rounded; corolla cylindric, 6-8 mm; filaments spreading-hairy, papillate; anthers 0.7-1.2 mm, with 2 awns, thecae divergent distally; ovary glabrous. Capsules (4.5-)5-6 mm wide. Seeds angular; testa firm, papillose. 2n = 22.

Flowering early-mid spring. Flood plains of black-water streams, coastal plain; 0-200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.

Shrub 1-2 m; lvs leathery, lanceolate or oblong to oblanceolate or elliptic, 8-15 cm, acute to abruptly short-acuminate, entire to spinulose-serrulate; petioles 5-10 mm; racemes sessile, dense, 2-4(-5) cm, with 8-30 fls; sep broadly ovate, obtuse or rounded, 2 mm; cor 6-8 mm; filaments usually spreading-hairy as well as papillate; seeds angular. Wet woods on the coastal plain; se. Va. to Fla. and La. Apr., May.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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