A deciduous almost glabrous shrub, up to 6 ft high in the wild. Leaves oblong, elliptic or narrowly obovate, mostly rounded or blunt at the apex, 3⁄4 to 3 in. long, glabrous except for down on the veins beneath (occasionally the whole undersurface is downy). Flowers nodding, borne late May to July in umbellate clusters on the leafless ends of the previous year’s growths. Calyx often tinged with red. Corolla white or pinkish, ovoid to tubular, not or hardly constricted at the mouth, 3⁄8 to 1⁄2 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 1579.
Native of the eastern and southern USA; introduced by Peter Collinson, before 1736. It is perhaps the most decorative of the American lyonias, since the flowers are better displayed than in the other species and the leaves colour red in the autumn. It is quite hardy.
L. lucida (Lam.) K. Koch Andromeda lucida Lam.; Pieris nitida (Bartr.) Benth. & Hook. f.; Xolisma lucida (Lam.) Rehd.; Lyonia marginata D. Don; Andromeda coriacea Ait. – This evergreen glabrous species of the southeastern USA is rarely cultivated. Branches green, three-angled. Leaves leathery, dark green, glossy, broad-elliptic, oblong, or oblong-ovate, entire; margins with a well-marked peripheral vein. Flowers clustered in the leaf-axils on the shoots of the previous year. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, reddish. Corolla ovoid to conic, about 1⁄4 in. long, white (red in f. rubra (Lodd.) Rehd.). Introduced 1765. Bot. Mag., t. 1045.