An evergreen shrub 2 to 6 ft high, with slender, arching, zigzagged branches, which when young are reddish, and covered with a very short down. Leaves glabrous and leathery, narrowly lanceolate, 3 to 5 in. long, 1 to 11⁄2 in. wide, with a long tapering point, rounded or shortly tapered at the base, spine-toothed, dark lustrous green above, paler and with scattered hairs beneath; stalk 1⁄3 to 2⁄3 in. long. Flowers produced during May, crowded on axillary racemes 1 to 2 in. long, occasionally in panicles 3 in. long. Corolla 1⁄4 in. long, slenderly pitcher-shaped, white; sepals narrowly ovate, pointed; flower-stalks very short. Bot. Mag., t. 1955.
Native of mountainous regions in the south-eastern United States; introduced in 1793. When fully in blossom, a well-grown plant with its long arching branches, laden for 12 to 18 in. of their length with racemes, is decidedly handsome. But owing to the flowers being all produced on the lower side, the branch often requires elevating for its full beauty to be seen. During the flowering season it is worth while to elevate a few of the branches by means of forked sticks.
cv. ‘Rainbow’. – Leaves irregularly variegated with white; quite striking in early summer, when the young stems and petioles are crimson and the variegation pink. Raised in the USA and also known after its raiser as ‘Girard’s Rainbow’.
cv. ‘Rollissonii’. – A variety with smaller, narrower leaves, 2 to 4 in. long, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. wide.