About Gaylussacia dumosa (Andrews) A.Gray
Gaylussacia dumosa (Andrews) A.Gray is a species of flowering plant in the heath family, with common names including dwarf huckleberry, bush huckleberry, and gopherberry. It is native to eastern North America, ranging from Newfoundland to Louisiana and Florida, and grows along the coastal plain and in mountain areas. This is a base-branching erect shrub that reaches a maximum height of around 75 centimeters (30 inches). It grows from a rhizome, and its young twigs are covered in curly hairs. Its deciduous leaves are oval, leathery, and glandular. The plant produces an inflorescence that is a raceme of bell-shaped flowers, and its fruit is a berry. It can reproduce both by seed and by sprouting new growth from its rhizome, and it sprouts easily after wildfires. This species grows in both dry and moist habitat types, and can be found in forests, pine barrens, pine flatwoods, bogs, and bays. It commonly grows alongside eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), tamarack (Larix laricina), redbay (Persea borbonia), sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), dangleberry (Gaylussacia frondosa), yaupon (Ilex vomitoria), fetterbush (Leucothoe racemosa), and blueberry (Vaccinium spp.). The specific epithet 'dumosa' translates to bushy or shrubby.
