FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Trailing branches with alternate evergreen leaves, usually in knee-high colonies in floodplain forests. Thick evergreen stands of this plant were said to make hunting dogs hobble, hence the common name. Flowers and leaves are highly toxic.
Synonym(s): Leucothoe platyphylla
Description: Low evergreen shrub with loose arching branches, up to 1.5 m tall.
Leaves: Alternate, lance-shaped to elliptic-shaped leaves with toothed margins. Leaves 5 to 13 cm long, 2 to 5 cm broad.
Flowers/Fruit: Whitish, urn-shaped flowers in branching racemes, originating from the axis and typically consist of more than 15 flowers. Fruits dry splitting, 5-lobed capsules. Flowers late March to May; fruits August to October.
Habit and Range: Wet, acidic swamps and depressions, bay forests, pocosins, seepages, mainly in the Coastal Plain.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Leucothoe axillaris (coastal doghobble) appears similar to Eubotrys racemosus (swamp fetterbush), which has flowers/fruits on unbranched racemes and is deciduous. Leaves of Leucothoe axillaris can be similar to Itea virginica (Virginia sweetspire), which has thinner leaves and flowers in a spike.
Click here to view Eubotrys racemosus.
Click here to view Itea virginica.
Link to side-by-side comparisons page
