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Coinwort Snowberry
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Coinwort Snowberry
ative Photo: Sanjyoti Subba
Common name: Coinwort Snowberry
Botanical name: Gaultheria nummularioides    Family: Ericaceae (Blueberry family)
Synonyms: Gaultheria nummulariae, Brossaea nummulariodes

Coinwort Snowberry is a small prostrate shrub with oppositely arranged, small ovate-round leaves, and brown bristly stem, bearing black berries. Flowers are tiny, about 4 mm, reddish to nearly white, spherical, borne singly in leaf axils and pendent. Sepals are broadly ovate. Leaves are 1-1.8 cm across, with rounded bases. They are hairless above but have bristly brown hairs on the underside, and often on the margins. Stems are spreading, much branched, densely leafy. Berry is black, succulent, 6 mm across. Coinwort Snowberry is found on rocks and banks in the Himalayas, from Himachal Pradesh to SW China and Burma, at altitudes of 2100-4000 m. Flowering: July-September.

Identification credit: Sanjyoti Subba Photographed in Fambong-Lho Wildlife Sanctuary, Sikkim.

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