About Cassiope lycopodioides (Pall.) D.Don
Cassiope lycopodioides (Pall.) D.Don is a perennial herb that grows in low, tightly ground-hugging mats. Its leaves are narrow, reaching up to 3 mm in length, and pressed closely against the plant's stem. Curled hairs grow at the tips of the leaves, and these are most noticeable on younger leaves. Most populations of the species have hyaline or scarious leaf margins, with the only exception being populations found on Haida Gwaii. The flowers are white and bell-shaped (campanulate), measuring up to 20 mm across. They have a calyx made of five fused sepals, which is often red or reddish green in color. This species is distributed along an arcing range across the northern Pacific Rim, stretching from northeast Asia to northwestern North America. In Asia, it grows from high elevations on Japan's Honshu and Hokkaido islands, extending north through the coastal mountain ranges and tundra of the Russian Far East. In North America, it occurs across the Aleutian Islands into southern Alaska, coastal and interior British Columbia, and the U.S. state of Washington. In Washington, the species has only been recorded growing on shaded alpine rock faces in King County and Snohomish County. The specific epithet "lycopodioides" references the plant's superficial similarity to some clubmoss species in the broad group Lycopodium sensu lato.
