Cassiope tetragona : Arctic White Heather

Scientific Name:

Kingdom: Plantae

Division:

• Tracheophyta (vascular)
• Spermatophyta (seed bearing)
Angiospermae (enclosed seed)

Class: Dicoteldonae (two seed-leaves)

Family: Ericaceae (Heath Family)

Genera: Cassiope (White Heather) (Named after Cassiopia of Greek mythology.)

Species: tetragona (Gk. tetra=four + gonia=an angle)

English Name(s):

Arctic White Heather,

First Nation Names:

Structure:

• Branches stiff, ascending to erect, quadrangular (4-sided), 5-30 cm long.
• Coarse, heath-forming, matted, dwarf, shrub.

Leaves:

• Simple (not compound or lobed).
• 2-6 mm long, deeply grooved on the back, leathery dark green.
• Opposite arranged in 4-rows, imbricated (overlapping).
• Evergreen.

Reproductive Parts:

• Flowers perfect (bisexual) and regular (symetrical).
• Pedicel (flower stalks), glabrous (hairless), more than twice longer than subtending leaves.
• Calyx (sepal) 5 lobes nearly separate, yellow green. Corolla (petals) 5-8 mm long, cream to white.
• Corolla united, flowers making flowers bell-shaped, 5-lobed.
• Flowers solitary from the leaf axils bending outwards.
• Ovary 5 loculed (chambered).
• Stamens (male parts) 10.

Seed:

• Dry capsule.

Not to Be Confused With:

Physiology:

• Shoots produce very few leaves per year. The leaves function for about 4-5 years and are highly vulnerable to snow abrasion.
• The bell-shaped flowers trap hot air rising from the ground and can be up to 5 degrees C warmer inside than the ambient air temperature.

Life Cycle:

• Perennial.

Seasonal Cycle:

• Plants finnished blooming by mid-July.

Animal Uses:

• Insects will overnight in the bell-shaped flowers to take advantage of the flowers heat traping abilities.

Habitat:

• Grows best out of the wind. On leeward slopes or divits in the ground, where early winter snows collect.
• On not to dry alpine slopes, heaths, and tundra.
• Preferes calcareous soils.

Modern:

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Medicinal:

Food:

Traditional Gwich'in:

Folklore:

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Traditional Other:

Folklore:

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