Leather Leaf Flowers

Description

Leather Leaf Flowers

Leatherleaf is a native evergreen shrub which produces small, bell-shaped white flowers in spring. It grows in bogs and other wetland areas, as well as High Peaks summits, in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Leatherleaf is a member of the Heath Family (Ericaceae).

Leatherleaf is useful in many ways to the bog ecosystem, providing cover for nesting ducks. It is a spreading shrub, forming dense thickets. It also produces numerous small, white, bell-shaped flowers in springtime.

Leatherleaf is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species. In ornamental usage, leatherleaf is widely used by florists as a filler green in bouquets and arrangements.The plant has usage as “sun-tea,” a drink in which dried or fresh leaves are steeped in cool water in a sunny location. This technique is used to avoid boiling it as a traditional infusion, which carries the danger of releasing andometoxin, a common toxin present in plants of the family Ericaceae. Leatherleaf also has limited medicinal use among some Native American tribes as a poultice of leaves for inflammation.