Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs · Chapter 129Ledum
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LEDUM LATIFOLIUM (syn L. groenlandicum).—Wild Rosemary, or Labrador Tea. This is a small shrub, reaching to about 3 feet in height, indigenous to swampy ground in Canada, Greenland, and over a large area of the colder parts of America. Leaves oval or oblong, and plentifully produced all over the plant. Flowers pure white, or slightly tinted with pink, produced in terminal corymbs, and usually at their best in April. A perfectly hardy, neat-growing, and abundantly-flowered shrub, but one that, somehow, has gone greatly out of favour in this country. This plant has been sub-divided into several varieties, that are, perhaps, distinct enough to render them worthy of attention. They are L. latifolium globosum, with white flowers, borne in globose heads, on the short, twiggy, and dark-foliaged branches. L. latifolium angustifolia has narrower leaves than those of the species, while L. latifolium intermedium is of neat growth and bears pretty, showy flowers.
L. PALUSTRE.—Marsh Ledum. This is a common European species, growing from 2 feet to 3 feet high, with much smaller leaves than the former, and small pinky-white flowers produced in summer. It is an interesting and pretty plant. The Ledums succeed best in cool, damp, peaty soil.