Dwarf Huckleberry NS General Status Rank: Secure NS General Status Rank: Sensitive Golden-Heather opulation Range opulation P 51 Gaylussacia bigeloviana : WOODY SHRUBS : WOODY PLANTS 52 POPULATION POPULATION RANGE RANGE

Distribution: NS, NB, PE, NL, QC Distribution: NS, PE, NL Flowering: June Flowering: May - June

SIZE: 10-50 cm tall. SIZE: Up to 30 cm tall and 1 m wide. LEAVES: Inversely egg-shaped LEAVES: Long and narrow (linear), (obovate), dark green, thick, 2-4 cm scale-like evergreen leaves with soft long and end in a fine pointed tip. The hairs, 3-6 mm long. They are leaf edges are smooth (entire) and alternately arranged and spread small shiny resin glands dot the leaf outward and overlap on the stem. The surface. They are alternately arranged leaves closest to the ground may be along the branches. dead and brownish but stay attached to STEM: Smooth, dark, and branching. the stem. They turn a brownish orange Young branches have many fine hairs colour in the fall and winter. covering their surface. STEM: Slender twigs with long soft FLOWERS: White to pinkish, 6-9 mm hairs. long and bell shaped with five lobes. FLOWERS: Numerous and yellow The flowers, which point downwards, with 5 petals and 8-20 stamens. A are arranged in elongate and sometimes single flower is found at the end of a drooping clusters. short flowering stalk, 5-15 mm long. © DAVID PATRIQUIN, NS WILD FLORA SOCIETY FRUITS: Blue to black, round, edible, FRUITS: Capsules with 1-3 cylindrical berry-like drupes with soft hairs, 5-8 seeds. mm wide. NOTES: A low growing, bushy, NOTES: Spreads using long horizontal heather-like that often grows in roots (rhizomes) which run below clumps and can © SEAN BLANEY ground and send up new shrubs. Also form dense known as Bog Huckleberry mats. (Gaylussacia dumosa var. bigeloviana).

© SEAN BLANEY Growing in clumps © DAVID PATRIQUIN © BRITTON AND BROWN (1913) © BRITTON AND BROWN (1913)

Scale-like leaves © MEGAN CROWLEY Flower and leaves

Habitat: Fruits with soft hairs © ALAIN BELLIVEAU © SEAN BLANEY Dry barrens on sand or rock outcrops. Interesting point: Despite its name Golden Heather is not a true heather Habitat: and belongs to the Rock Rose family (). Included in this family is the Open acidic sphagnous bogs and barrens. beautiful yellow-flowered Rockrose (Helianthemum canadense) which is also Interesting point: The juicy berries look found in sand barrens and is endangered in NS. like larger and darker blueberries with larger Similar species: Sand Heather () has shorter or seeds but are even sweeter! absent flower stalks (0-3 mm long) and 1-3 mm long leaves that are very hairy Similar species: Black Huckleberry and tightly pressed against the stem. It is known in NS only from the dunes of the Northumberland Strait. Broom Crowberry ( , page 49) (Gaylussacia baccata) is taller (50 to 200 Corema conradii cm), has smooth fruits and much shinier frequently co-occurs with Golden Heather but has fruit and flowers on shorter leaves with rounded ends. Black Huckleberry © SEAN BLANEY Bell-shaped flowers © SEAN BLANEY stalks with fleshier looking leaves with no hairs and purplish or reddish flowers. Sand Heather © SEAN BLANEY