Shrubs. Stems erect or spreading, glabrous or sparsely short-hairy, glabrescent; branches without silvery scales. Leaves persistent; blade oblong, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, coriaceous, margins entire or spinulose-serrulate, plane, surfaces not glaucous, without silvery scales, glabrous or hairy abaxially; venation reticulodromous. Inflorescences axillary, fascicled or solitary racemes, (not leafy), 8–60-flowered, (produced on previous year’s wood); (bracteoles 2, medial or proximal, partly covering pedicel). Flowers: sepals 5, slightly connate, lanceolate-ovate to broadly ovate; petals 5, connate nearly their entire lengths, white, corolla cylindric to urceolate, lobes much shorter than tube; stamens 8 (–10), included; filaments straight, flattened, glabrous or hairy, without spurs; anthers with or without 2 awns proximal to anther-filament junction, dehiscent through terminal pores; pistil 5-carpellate; ovary pseudo 10-locular; (style scarcely longer than stamens); stigma 5-lobed, capitate to peltate. Fruits capsular, subglobose, dry. Seeds ca. 60–120, ellipsoid, oblong, or angular, flattened or wedge-shaped; testa smooth and shiny, reticulate, or papillose. x = 11.

Distribution

e, w United States, e Asia

Discussion

Species 5 (3 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Leucothoë axillaris, Leucothoë davisiae, Leucothoë fontanesiana

Key

1	Filaments glabrous; racemes fascicled; w United States.	Leucothoe davisiae
1	Filaments spreading-hairy and/or papillate; racemes fascicled or solitary; se United States	> 2
2	Sepals broadly ovate, apex obtuse or rounded; racemes 2-4(-5) cm.	Leucothoe axillaris
2	Sepals lance-ovate, apex acute or subacute; racemes 4-10 cm.	Leucothoe fontanesiana

"entire" is not a number.