Identifying Characteristics
| Habitat: | Rusty lyonia commonly grows on sandy sites including wet flatwoods and dry forests. It can also be found growing in hardwood hammocks. |
| Size/Form: | Rusty lyonia is a rhizomatous shrub that usually measures 3' to 12' tall but may grow up to 30' high. It has several crooked trunks with stout and ascending limbs that form an uneven crown. |
| Stem: | The twigs are covered with rusty hairs or scales. The brown bark is scaly and fissured. |
| Leaves: | The leaves are simple, alternate, and persistent. They are 1" to 3" long, ¼" to 1½" wide, and elliptical in outline. The upper leaf surface is glossy, the lower leaf surface has rusty scales, and the leaf margins are smooth and slightly rolled under. |
| Fruit: | The fruit is a five-sided ovoid capsule, about ¼" long and contains many small, light brown seeds, about 1/8" long. These capsules occur in small clusters in leaf axils. |