Andromeda L.

Shrubs. Stems ascending or spreading, (sparingly branched); young twigs glaucous (bud scales glaucous). Leaves persistent; blade linear to narrowly elliptic or oblong, coriaceous, margins entire, revolute (often completely so), abaxial surface glabrous or densely hairy (hairs fine, erect); venation reticulodromous. Inflorescences terminal, umbelliform corymbs, 2-8-flowered, sometimes flowers solitary, (produced on previous year’s growth); (bracts glaucous). Flowers: sepals 5, connate for ca. 13 their lengths, dentate-triangular; petals 5, connate for nearly their entire lengths, pink, corolla globose-urceolate, lobes much shorter than tube; stamens 10, included; filaments straight, flattened, hairy, without spurs; anthers with 2 awns (awns solid, slender, ascending awns bent at an angle to anthers and curved-ascending), dehiscent by apical pores; pistil 5-carpellate; ovary 5-locular; stigma subcapitate. Fruits capsular, 5-valved, (with unthickened sutures), obovoid to subglobose, dry. Seeds 25-35, ovoid or ellipsoid; testa multilayered. x = 12.