''Andromeda polifolia'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

bog-rosemary, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the heath

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Ericaceae,

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

to northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only member of the genus ''Andromeda'', and is only found in

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

s in cold

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

-accumulating areas. ''Andromeda glaucophylla'' is a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''A. polifolia'' var. ''latifolia''.

Description

It is a small

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

growing to (rarely to ) tall with slender stems. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

, alternately arranged, lanceolate, long and broad, dark green above (purplish in winter) and white beneath with the leaf margins curled under. The

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s are bell-shaped, white to pink, long; flowering is in late spring to early summer. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

is a small capsule containing numerous

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s. There are two

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

, treated as distinct

by some

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

s: *''Andromeda polifolia'' var. ''polifolia''. Northern

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, northwestern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. *''Andromeda polifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' Aiton

789 __NOTOC__ Year 789 ( DCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 789 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Eu ...

/small>. Northeastern

( syn. ''A. glaucophylla'' Link

821 __NOTOC__ Year 821 (Roman numerals, DCCCXXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Byzantine general Thomas the Slav leads a revolt, and secures control over most of the Byzan ...

/small>, ''A. polifolia'' var. ''glaucophylla'' (Link) DC.

839 __NOTOC__ Year 839 ( DCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Prince Sicard of Benevento is assassinated by a conspiracy among the nobility. He is succeeded by Radelchis I, c ...

/small>).

Etymology

The genus was named by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

who observed it during his 1732

expedition to Lapland The expedition to Lapland, the northernmost region in Sweden, by Carl Linnaeus between May and October 1732 was an important part of his scientific career. Linnaeus departed from Uppsala and travelled clockwise around the coast of the Gulf of ...

and compared the plant to Andromeda from Greek mythology. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

is a noun in apposition, which Linnaeus based on

Johann Christian Buxbaum Johann Christian Buxbaum (no later than 5 October 1693 – 7 July 1730), was a German physician, botanist, entomologist and traveller. He was born in Merseburg and studied medicine at the Universities of Leipzig, Wittenberg, Jena, and Leyden. In ...

's pre-Linnaean generic designation ''Polifolia''.. Buxbaum in turn derived the name from

Johann Bauhin Johann (or Jean) Bauhin (12 December 1541 – 26 October 1613) was a Swiss botanist, born in Basel. He was the son of physician Jean Bauhin and the brother of physician and botanist Gaspard Bauhin. Biography Bauhin studied botany at the Univ ...

, who used it to mean "having ''polium''-like leaves". The precise plant that Bauhin meant by ''polium'' is uncertain, but it may have been ''

Teucrium montanum ''Teucrium montanum'', the mountain germander, is a germander native to southern Europe, from Spain eastward to Turkey. It forms shrubs about a foot high, with small leaves no more than an inch across, and petals blooming yellowish white. On sou ...

''. The common name "bog rosemary" derives from the superficial resemblance of the leaves to those of

rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers. It is a member of the sage family, Lamiaceae. The species is native to the Mediterranean r ...

, which is not closely related.

Fossil record

Many

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

seeds of †''Andromeda carpatica'' have been extracted from

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petr ...

samples of the

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), epoch made up of two Stage (stratigraphy), stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0. ...

fresh water deposits in Nowy Sacz Basin,

West Carpathians The Western Carpathians () are a mountain range and geomorphological province that forms the western part of the Carpathian Mountains. The mountain belt stretches from the Low Beskids range of the Eastern Carpathians along the border of Poland w ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Cultivation

Numerous

cultivars A cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue cult ...

have been developed for garden use, all of which require damp acid soil in shade. The cultivars 'Compacta' and 'Macrophylla' have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

. Like most other members of the family Ericaceae, they are acid-loving plants (

calcifuge A calcifuge is a plant that does not tolerate alkaline (basic) soil. The word is derived from the Latin 'to flee from chalk'. These plants are also described as ericaceous, as the prototypical calcifuge is the genus '' Erica'' (heaths). It is not ...

s), and must be grown in a medium with a low pH.

Chemistry

Bog rosemary contains

grayanotoxin Grayanotoxins are a group of closely related neurotoxins named after ''Leucothoe grayana'', a plant native to Japan and named for 19th-century American botanist Asa Gray. Grayanotoxin I (grayanotoxane-3,5,6,10,14,16-hexol 14-acetate) is also known ...

, which when ingested may cause respiratory problems, dizziness, vomiting, or

diarrhoea Diarrhea (American English), also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa (British English), is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration d ...

Fungal Associations

Research in West Siberian bogs has revealed that ''Andromeda polifolia'' harbors a diverse fungal community. While many of these fungi are also found on other bog plants, some appear to be specific to ''A. polifolia''. This fungal community plays a role in the decomposition of the plant's leaf litter and contributes to the overall carbon cycling in the bog ecosystem. The composition of this community is influenced by environmental factors, particularly water level.

Images

Image:Andromeda_polifolia_1.jpg, ''Andromeda polifolia'' var. ''polifolia'' leaves Image:Andromeda polifolia, Pancake Bay PP.jpg, ''A. polifolia'', Pancake Bay,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Image:Cleaned-Illustration Andromeda polifolia.jpg, 1885 illustration Image:Linnaeus Andromeda.jpg, Linnaeus' original drawing

References

External links

* Images at Flavon's art gallery
Flower

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q742866, from2=Q2846938 Vaccinioideae Flora of Europe Flora of temperate Asia Flora of Middle Europe Flora of Northern Europe Flora of Mongolia Flora of Siberia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus