Synonyms: Leather-Leaf.
Leatherleaf is an evergreen, low, much-branched, colony-forming shrub of peatlands. Its distribution is circumpolar, and, in North America, ranges from subarctic and boreal Alaska and Canada, Newfoundland, and Labrador south to Georgia. (It is not known to occur in Virginia or West Virginia, but does occur in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program.) Boreal/ice-age relict peatland ponds in the Pitch Pine Barrens community of northern Anne Arundel County (R. Simmons, presentation) are the only known stations in Maryland for Leatherleaf. It was historically known from similar communities in Delaware, but not from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and is considered extirpated on the Delmarva. The presence and abundance of Leatherleaf is a distinguishing feature of these boreal ponds, which are one of Maryland's rarest habitats. For more on Anne Arundel County's boreal wetlands, see William Sipple’s book “Days Afield” (1999).
Small, bell-shaped, white flowers (similar to the flowers of many other heaths) are produced in spring. As its name implies, the leaves are leathery. They are also scurfy, especially on the undersides.
Leatherleaf grows in bogs, and, in Maryland, is known only from peatlands of Anne Arundel County.
Host plant for various moth species including Major Datana Moth (Miller et al., 2018).
There are 31 records in the project database.
| GA | AL | WA | FR | CL | MO | HO | BA | BC | HA | CE | PG | AA | CV | CH | SM | KE | QA | CN | TA | DO | WI | SO | WO |
