An evergreen shrub 1 to 2 ft high, of rather thin, erect, bifurcating habit, but bushy; young shoots two-edged, covered with a fine down at first. Leaves opposite or in threes, narrowly oblong or ovate, 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄8 to 3⁄8 in. wide, plane or recurved at the margins, tapered at both ends, dark lustrous green above and glabrous except on the midrib, lower surface glaucous white. Flowers in a terminal, flattish cluster 1 to 11⁄2 in. across, produced late in April; flower-stalks glabrous, very slender. Calyx-lobes ovate-oblong. Corolla saucer-shaped, about 1⁄2 in. across, with five broad, shallow lobes, of a beautiful pale purplish rose. Stamens of the same colour, but with brown anthers. Bot. Mag., t. 177.
Native of both eastern and western N. America; introduced in 1767. Naturally a plant of bogs and other wet places, it likes a cool, moist soil. Under the drier conditions usually given it in cultivation it is a sturdier more erect shrub than it appears to be in nature, where it is said to be straggling. It is very hardy and one of the brightest of spring-flowering shrubs of its colour.
var. microphylla (Hook.) Rehd. K. glauca var. microphylla Hook.; K. microphylla (Hook.) Heller – A dwarf, spreading shrub usually less than 6 in. high. Leaves 3⁄8 to 3⁄4 in. long, half or less wide. Flowers about 3⁄8 in. wide, usually rose-purple. An alpine variety of the species ranging from Alaska to California and Colorado. For a photograph of this variety taken in Colorado see New Fl. & Sylv., Vol. 8, fig. lvii.