Ledum palustre, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1972, Flora Europaea. Volume 3. Diapensiacea to Myoporaceae, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 9

1. L. palustre L. , Sp. Pl. 391 (1753) .

Stems up to 120 cm, decumbent to erect; young twigs ferruginous-tomentose. Leaves 12-50 x 1-5-12 mm, linear to elliptic-oblong, ferruginoustomentose beneath, deflexed in winter; margins revolute. Flowers numerous; pedicels 5-25 mm, persistently glandular- verrucose and often also ferruginous-tomentose at first, erect in flower, deflexed in fruit. Petals 4-8 mm, obovate, patent, white. Ovary and capsule verrucose-glandular. Bogs, heaths and coniferous woods. N. & C. Europe, southwards to S. Germany, N.E. Austria and N. Ukraine; extinct in several stations further south. Au Cz Fe Ge No Po fR m Rs (N, B, C, W) Su [*Br]. A polymorphic, circumpolar species. The two taxa recognized below as subspecies are often treated as separate species, but intermediates are frequent in N.E. Asia. Some populations in Arctic Europe have very narrow leaves with strongly revolute margins, and have been assigned to subsp. decumbens (Aiton) Hultén , Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl. ser. 3, 8(2): 8 (1930), which is widespread in arctic and subarctic Asia and America, but it is probably better to regard them as minor variants of subsp. palustre .