Zone: Front Foundation

Season of Interest: Spring (Flowers) and Winter (Evergreen foliage)

The Doctor’s Notes (Medicinal Use)

While not a primary medicinal plant in Dr. Woodward's standard pharmacy, Leucothoe belongs to the Ericaceae family, which contains many plants with potent chemical properties:

• Cautionary Botany: Like many of its cousins (such as mountain laurel), Leucothoe contains grayanotoxins. Dr. Woodward would have known that this plant is toxic if ingested, making it more of an ornamental asset than a medical one.

• Topical Traditions: In some indigenous traditions that preceded 19th-century settling, related species were occasionally used in extremely diluted washes for skin irritations, though this was rare in standard medical practice.

The Household Assistant (Homestead Use)

For the Woodward family, the Coast Leucothoe was a hard-working ornamental that solved several landscape problems:

• Year-Round Privacy: Because it is evergreen, it provided a permanent screen for the lower portion of the museum's foundation, looking just as lush in the middle of a snowy January as it does in July.

• Winter Bronze: During the coldest months, the deep green leaves often take on a beautiful purplish-bronze hue, adding much-needed color to the stark winter landscape.

• Floral Grace: In late spring, it produces drooping clusters of small, bell-shaped flowers that resemble Lily of the Valley, adding a delicate fragrance to the front walkway.

Botanist’s Corner

• Form: A low-growing, multi-stemmed shrub with an arching, "fountain-like" habit, typically reaching 2 to 4 feet in height.

• Foliage: Features thick, leathery, lance-shaped leaves with slightly serrated edges. The glossy surface helps the plant shed snow easily during Connecticut winters.

• Flowers: Produces 2-to-3-inch long racemes of creamy white, urn-shaped flowers that hang from the leaf axils (where the leaf meets the stem).