Both the pretty foliage and the fruit
have the refreshing flavor of sweet birch.
PYXIE; FLOWERING MOSS; PINE-BARREN BEAUTY
(Pyxidanthera barbulata) Diapensia family
Flowers - Abundant, white, or sometimes pink, about 1/4 in.
across, 5-parted, solitary, seated at tips of branches. Stem:
Prostrate, creeping, much branched, the main branches often 1 ft.
long, very leafy, growing in mat-like patches. Leaves: Moss-like,
very narrow, pointed, seated on stem, and overlapping like
scales, on upper part of branches.
Preferred Habitat - Dry sandy soil; pine barrens.
Flowering Season - March-May.
Distribution - New Jersey, south to North Carolina.
Curiously enough, this creeping, tufted, mat-like little plant is
botanically known as a shrub, yet it is lower than many mosses,
and would seem to the untrained eye to be certainly of their kin.
In earliest spring, when Lenten penitents, jaded with the
winter's frivolities in the large cities, seek the salubrious
pine lands of southern New Jersey and beyond, they are amazed and
delighted to find the abundant little evergreen mounds of pyxie
already starred with blossoms.
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