Hudsonia tomentosa
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photo courtesy Renee Brecht |
Britton & Brown |
| Botanical name: | Hudsonia tomentosa |
| Common name: | beach heather |
| Group: | dicot |
| Family: | Cistaceae |
| Growth type: | sub-shrub |
| Duration: | perennial |
| Origin: | native |
| Plant height: | to 6" |
| Foliage: | alternate, evergreen, scale-like leaves |
| Flower: | yellow, 1/4" across, 5 petals |
| Flowering time: | bloom late May to June; fruit late June to August |
| Habitat: | dry sand of dunes |
| Range in New Jersey: | through the coast strip from Middlesex county southward, including Delaware baysore; intrusive into the eastern edge of the Pine barrens (Hough, 183) |
| Heritage ranking, if any: | n/a |
| Distribution: |  |
| Misc. | Witmer Stone, 1910, says " This low, white, woolly shrub, seldom
over six inches in height, forms patches of considerable extent over
the wind-swept sand dunes of the coast, which it so closely resembles
in color as to be inconspicuous, except in late spring when its branches
are covered with little starry yellow blossoms"(561). H. tomentosa resembles H. ericoides; however, H. tomentosa twigs are covered with tiny white hairs on the leaves, giving it a bluer-gray color than the green of H. ericoides. After flower, H. ericoides will also develop longer needle-like leaves than will H. tomentosa. |