Trailing and creeping herb to 10 cm tall

Stem: hairy, with short, slightly upright branches.

Leaves: evergreen, low on flower stalks, opposite, short-stalked, light green, 1 - 2.5 cm long, about 1.5 cm wide, broadly oval to egg-shaped with narrowing base and rounded tip, toothed, and firm.

Flowers: paired, long-stalked, nodding, fragrant, borne terminally at branch tips. Calyx five-lobed. Corolla pinkish white, 1 - 1.5 cm long, bell-shaped, shallowly five-lobed, hairy within. Stamens four.

Fruit: a small, dry, one-seeded, indehiscent capsule.

Similar species: No information at this time.

Flowering: June to August

Habitat and ecology: Very rare in the Chicago Region, having been extirpated in Illinois and Lake and Porter counties in Indiana. It is found in dry to moist bogs and forests.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Notes: This is the American variety of the European plant.

Etymology: Linnaea is named after Carl von Linne (1707-1778), the Swedish botanist universally known as Linnaeus, and often referred to as the Father of Taxonomy. Borealis means "from the North." Americana means "of the Americas."

Author: The Morton Arboretum

This plant grows in bogs and rarely on dry land. I found a single small colony in very sandy soil, growing in a patch of Gaylussacia baccata on a north slope, wooded with black and white oak, about a mile south of Alcinda in Noble County. This slope bordered a land-locked blueberry swamp and I believe this plant may have been a frequent plant about the swamp before the water level was lowered. The plant grew about 8 feet above the water level. I found this colony in 1916, but when I revisited the place in 1929, although the colony still persisted, it was almost extinct. I searched the border of this swamp for other colonies but failed to find any. So far as is known, this plant will soon become extinct in Indiana except in Porter County.