Pieris floribunda (Pursh) Bentham & Hooker f.. Subgenus: Pieris. Section: Pieris. Mountain Andromeda, Evergreen Mountain Fetterbush. Phen: May-Jun; Aug-Oct. Hab: Acid wooded slopes, heath balds at high elevations, summits of Piedmont monadnocks, sometimes escaped from cultivation. Dist: A Southern Appalachian endemic: e. WV, w. VA, w. NC, e. TN, and allegedly n. GA (the type locality is supposedly in n. GA, but there is no other evidence of the species in that state) and w. MD (the station possibly planted, but in appropriate habitat and close to the northernmost stations in WV). The range in NC is peculiar, the species occurring at high elevations southwest of Asheville, absent from apparently suitable habitats to the northeast (such as the Craggies, Blacks, Roan Mountain, and Grandfather Mountain), yet reappearing in a few disjunct populations at low elevations in the upper Piedmont. In w. VA (and adjacent e. WV), P. floribunda occurs on rather dry sandstone ridges and upper slopes, often under an oak canopy, especially in the front ranges of the Cumberland Mountains.

Origin/Endemic status: Endemic

Taxonomy Comments: P. floribunda is placed in subgenus Pieris, section Pieris, along with P. japonica and another Asian species.

Synonymy: = C, F, FNA8, G, K1, K3, K4, NE, RAB, S, Tn, Va, W, WV, Judd (1982a), Luteyn et al (1996)

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