"Growing Online"tm

 

 

   

Summary
Duration	Perennial
Growth Habit	Shrub
U.S. Nativity	Native to U.S.
Federal T/E Status
National Wetland Indicator	FACW, OBL
Morphology/Physiology
Active Growth Period	Spring and Summer
After Harvest Regrowth Rate	Slow
Bloat
C:N Ratio	Medium
Coppice Potential	No
Fall Conspicuous	No
Fire Resistant	Yes
Flower Color	White
Flower Conspicuous	No
Foliage Color	Yellow-Green
Foliage Porosity Summer	Porous
Foliage Porosity Winter	Porous
Foliage Texture	Fine
Fruit/Seed Color	Brown
Fruit/Seed Conspicuous	No
Growth Form	Rhizomatous
Growth Rate	Moderate
Height at 20 Years, Maximum (feet)	4
Height, Mature (feet)	4
Known Allelopath	No
Leaf Retention	Yes
Lifespan	Moderate
Low Growing Grass	No
Nitrogen Fixation
Resprout Ability	Yes
Shape and Orientation	Irregular
Toxicity	None
Growth Requirements
Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Fine Textured Soils	Yes
Adapted to Medium Textured Soils	Yes
Anaerobic Tolerance	Low
CaCO3 Tolerance	Low
Cold Stratification Required	No
Drought Tolerance	Low
Fertility Requirement	Low
Fire Tolerance	Medium
Frost Free Days, Minimum	110
Hedge Tolerance	None
Moisture Use	High
pH, Minimum	5
pH, Maximum	6
Planting Density per Acre, Minimum	100
Planting Density per Acre, Maximum	400
Precipitation, Minimum	35
Precipitation, Maximum	70
Root Depth, Minimum (inches)	8
Salinity Tolerance	Low
Shade Tolerance	Intermediate
Temperature, Minimum (°F)	-28
Reproduction
Bloom Period	Early Spring
Commercial Availability	Routinely Available
Fruit/Seed Abundance	Low
Fruit/Seed Period Begin	Summer
Fruit/Seed Period End	Fall
Fruit/Seed Persistence	No
Propagated by Bare Root	Yes
Propagated by Bulb	No
Propagated by Container	Yes
Propagated by Corm	No
Propagated by Cuttings	Yes
Propagated by Seed	Yes
Propagated by Sod	No
Propagated by Sprigs	No
Propagated by Tubers	No
Seed per Pound	96000
Seed Spread Rate	Slow
Seedling Vigor	Medium
Small Grain	No
Vegetative Spread Rate
Suitability/Use
Berry/Nut/Seed Product	No
Christmas Tree Product	No
Fodder Product	No
Fuelwood Product	None
Lumber Product	No
Naval Store Product	No
Nursery Stock Product	No
Palatable Browse Animal	Medium
Palatable Graze Animal	Low
Palatable Human	No
Post Product	No
Protein Potential
Pulpwood Product	No
Veneer Product	No

 

Kingdom  Plantae -- Plants

Subkingdom  Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants

Superdivision  Spermatophyta -- Seed plants

Division  Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants

Class  Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons

Subclass  Dilleniidae

Order  Ericales

Family  Ericaceae -- Heath family

Genus  Chamaedaphne Moench -- leatherleaf P

Species  Chamaedaphne calyculata (L.) Moench -- leatherleaf P

 

Alternate common name

Cassandra

 

Uses

Leatherleaf reclaimed large areas in raised bogs in the eastern United States that had been denuded by commercial peat removal.  The species is used for nesting and cover by wildlife, including mallards and ruffed grouse.  It is a part of browse for sharp-tailed grouse, white-tailed deer, caribou, and moose. 

 

Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s current status, such as, state noxious status and wetland indicator values.

 

Description

General: Heath family (Ericaceae).   Native perennial, evergreen shrubs 0.3-1.5 meters tall, the stems covered with tiny brownish scales.  Leaves are alternate, oblong to elliptic, 1.5-5 cm long, finely toothed, the lower surface covered with tiny brownish scales, becoming smaller and positioned to the upper side of the stem towards the branch tips.  The flowers are white, urn-shaped, 6-7 mm long, hanging and arising from one side of the terminal inflorescence, solitary in the axils of the small leaves.  Fruits are depressed-globose, woody, gray-brown capsules, persisting through the winter.  Common name is in reference to the tough, evergreen leaf. 

 

Variation within the species: several varieties have been recognized within leatherleaf in North America, based primarily on differences in leaf size and shape (see Fernald 1950).  These taxa are currently regarded as within the limits of continuous variation of the species and are not formally recognized. 

 

Distribution: Circumboreal; northern North America from Alaska and Yukon and all of Canada (except Franklin) to the easternmost provinces, in the US in the Great Lake states and the Northeast, disjunct and rare in Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 

 

Adaptation

Leatherleaf occurs in practically all boreal bogs as well as in swamps, lake and stream margins, sedge fens and meadows, black spruce muskegs, and vernal ponds and shrub swamps in pine barrens, usually growing on wet, strongly acidic sphagnum mats over water.  It may form thickets as a dominant species in shrub associations in some bogs.  It is found at elevations up to 1600 meters.  Flowering: April-June from buds formed the previous season; fruiting: June-January. 

 

Establishment

Leatherleaf reproduces by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.  Seed set is usually high (50-95%) when the flowers are open-pollinated but low (1-15%) when flowers are self-fertilized.  After cold stratification to break dormancy, the seeds germinate on sphagnum or sedge mats.  Moist sphagnum surrounding leatherleaf shoots, roots, and rhizomes causes vigorous vegetative growth. 

 

Leatherleaf is the first shrub to enter a bog after sphagnum is established and it is a primary species in extending the bog mat.  It remains characteristic of the mature and late stages of moss/low ericaceous shrub communities as open water disappears and may remain dominant for 50 years in some communities.  Leatherleaf is shade intolerant and begins to thin as tall shrubs or bog forest species such as tamarack (Larix laricina) and/or black spruce (Picea mariana) establish. 

 

Persistence of leatherleaf in bogs over long periods has been attributed to its regeneration following recurrent fire, which is a primary factor in maintaining early successional stages in these communities.  Leatherleaf may show a strong increase in stem density following spring burning and may be only slightly injured by summer or autumn fires.  Leatherleaf probably survives severe fires because rhizomes are deep in water-saturated substrates and its root crowns and stems are matted in debris.  

 

Division is the most successful method of propagation for leatherleaf.  Plants may be divided in early fall, planting each rooted clump as a new shrub.  Transplanting in summer or autumn stimulated shoot production more than spring transplanting.  The ends of shoots also may be bent down to the soil and layered.  Young plants should be partially shaded. 

 

Management

Leatherleaf greatly increases following clearcutting.  Although leatherleaf and other shrubs can suppress black spruce on medium to poor sites, restocking and regeneration of trees may not affected by shrub density after harvest on other sites.  Stocking rates were about the same on burned and unburned cut-over black spruce sites in northern Minnesota.  

 

When used for rehabilitation or revegetation, natural growth of leatherleaf can be aided by transplants of sphagnum mats containing live plants. 

 

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information.  Look in the phone book under ”United States Government.”  The Natural Resources Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading “Department of Agriculture.”

 

References

Fernald, M.L. 1945.  Chamaedaphne calyculata (L.) Moench, var. latifolia (Ait.) comb. nov.  Rhodora 47:390-391.

 

Fernald, M.L. 1950.  Gray’s manual of botany.  Ed. 8.  American Book Co., New York, New York.

 

Luteyn, J.L. 1996.  Ericaceae of the southeastern United States.  Castanea 61:101-144.

 

Pavek, D.S. 1993.  Chamaedaphne calyculata. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler). The fire effects information system [Data base].  USDA, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, Montana.  <https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/>

 

Reader, R.J. 1977.  Bog ericad flowers: self-compatibility and relative attractiveness to bees.  Canadian J. Bot. 55:2279-2287.

 

Prepared By

Guy Nesom

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

 

Species Coordinator

Lincoln Moore

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

Edited: 17jan01 jsp;10feb03 ahv; 05jun06 jsp

 

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS Web site<https://plants.usda.gov> or the Plant Materials Program Web site <https://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov>

 

 

 

Attribution:  U.S. Department of Agriculture