Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for Mountain Fetterbush - Eubotrys recurvus (Buckley) Britton

Section 6 » Order Ericales » Family Ericaceae

Author	(Buckley) Britton
Distribution	Throughout the Mountains, and sparingly in the Piedmont foothills. Might be absent in the far southwestern counties in the Mountains. This is another southern Appalachian endemic shrub, occurring only north to southwestern VA and southern WV, south to extreme northeastern GA and eastern TN.
Abundance	Fairly common to at least locally common in the Mountains, except rare in the southwestern counties. Infrequent in the Piedmont, mainly on monadnocks.
Habitat	This species occurs mainly in uplands, typically in dry and rocky forests, usually at high elevations. Sites are normally quite acidic and not rich in plant diversity. Heath balds and ridges, sometimes exposed, are the primary habitats. It rarely occurs in bogs.
Phenology	Blooms from late April to early June; fruits from August to October. It flowers before the leaves emerge.
Identification	This is a medium-sized, deciduous shrub, averaging about 10 feet tall. The thin leaves are rather shiny above, and are slightly serrated. However, many other shrubs have similar leaves, and identification may require seeing the curved inflorescence of dangling white urn-shaped flowers or capsules, all on one side of the stem. As with many shrubs, this species can occur in sizable stands; and a rather bland-looking, 10-foot-tall zone of shrubs growing in a high elevation dry or rocky woodland could be this species, especially if at a heath bald or edge of a granitic dome.
Taxonomic Comments	Most older references retained this species in the genus Leucothoe, and named as L. recurve.
Other Common Name(s)	Recurved Doghobble, Redtwig Doghobble. Eubotrys species, which are deciduous, are generally named as “Fetterbush”, leaving “Doghobble” to the evergreen species, in the genus Leucothoe.
State Rank	S4
Global Rank	G4G5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp

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