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Pieris floribunda (Pursh) Benth. & Hook. f.

Modern name

Pieris floribunda (Pursh) Benth. & Hook. f.

Synonyms

Andromeda floribunda Pursh ex Sims

An evergreen shrub from 3 to 6 ft high, of bushy, rounded habit, and when in good condition furnished right to the ground, the branches rather stiff; shoots and leaf-stalks furnished with dark bristles appressed to the stem, and pointing forwards. Leaves ovate, 112 to 3 in. long, 12 to 1 in. wide, pointed, rounded or tapering at the base, slightly toothed, bristly at the edges, dark glossy green above, paler beneath, sprinkled with very short black hairs on both surfaces; stalk 14 to 38 in. long. Flowers produced in March and April in erect terminal panicles 2 to 5 in. high, each consisting of several slender, downy racemes; corolla pure white, pitcher-shaped, 14 in. long, calyx-lobes ovate; flower-stalk decurved so as to bring all the flowers to the lower side, and furnished with two linear bracts. Bot. Mag., t. 1566.

Native of the south-eastern United States; introduced in 1800. This is one of the most beautiful and hardy of flowering evergreens, slow-growing and of neat bushy habit, admirable for planting in groups.

cv. ‘elongata’ – A very fine form from Keeper’s Hill Nursery, given an Award of Merit at Vincent Square, April 5, 1938. Some of the racemes were 8 in. long.


Genus

Pieris

Other species in the genus