Landscape Plants

• Evergreen shrub, 8-36 inches (20-90 cm) tall, sometimes higher, prostrate, spreading.  Twigs 4-angled (squarish in cross-section).  Leaves opposite, simple, broadly ovate to elliptic or obovate, 1-3 cm long, finely serrate to entire, leathery, light green.  Flowers small, red-brown.  Fruit white, 8 mm long.

• Sun (more compact) to part shade, well-drained, light, slightly acid soil.  Easy to keep low by pruning. Loss in heavy clay soils is common, root rot is suspected. 

• Hardy to USDA Zone 5      Native to the mountains from British Columbia to California.

• Taxonomy:  Paxistima myrsinites is the accepted name of the World Flora Online and the ITIS, other names used are Pachistima myrsinites and Paxistima mertifolia.  A memory device for Pachistima; "pa-kissed-ma".

• myrsinites: myrsine, Greek name for myrtle, -ites, resembling

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