Cassiope mertensiana

White heather, White Heather

Family: Ericaceae · Type: shrub · Native

White heather is a California native shrub found in the Klamath Ranges, high Cascade Range, and Sierra Nevada Highlands on moist, subalpine slopes and rocky areas with late snow at elevations of 1,800 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces delicate white bell-shaped flowers with five distinct lobes. Growing as a low, densely branched shrub less than 30 centimeters tall, it forms compact clusters with fine, glabrous or slightly hairy stems. Its distinctive leaves are small and boat-shaped, measuring 2 to 5 millimeters long, with overlapping elliptic blades that are leathery and concave, featuring entire margins that are sometimes minutely ciliate or glandular. In alpine environments, this diminutive shrub creates intricate, tightly packed cushions of white-flowered vegetation.

Habitat: Moist, subalpine slopes, around rocks, areas of late snow

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 1800-3505 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH

California counties: Mono, Fresno, Inyo, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Siskiyou, Alpine, Nevada, Madera, Trinity, Shasta, Mariposa, Tulare, Placer, Plumas, Amador, Sierra

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.