Flora of North America species comparison

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Gaultheria pyroloides

Miquel's spicy or Japanese wintergreen
Habit Shrubs, erect or, rarely, creeping, not mat-forming, rhizomatous, with adventitious roots.
Stems

(slender to stout), 10–30 cm, glabrous.
Leaf

blades oval to obovate or elliptic, 1.5–3.5 cm, base cuneate to rounded, margins serrate to ± crenate (teeth usually tipped with minute, glandular bristles), apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous.
Inflorescences

axillary, drooping, secund racemes;

peduncle reddish, 2–6 cm, sparsely hairy;

bracts light green, oblanceolate, 2.5–3.5 mm, not exceeding sepals, glabrous.
Pedicels

green, 4–8 mm, sparsely hairy;

bracteoles 1–3, pink to reddish, narrowly oblanceolate to subulate, 1–2 mm, glabrous.
Flowers

sepals 5, connate ca. 1/2 their lengths, dark green, deltate, 1.5–2 mm, glabrous;

petals 5, connate nearly their entire lengths, cream to light pink, 5–6 mm, glabrous, corolla urceolate, lobes 0.5 mm;

filaments broadest proximally, tapering distally, minutely ciliate marginally;

anthers with 2 bifurcating awns, dehiscent by subterminal pores proximal to awns.
Fruits

white, 6–8 mm wide.

Gaultheria pyroloides
Phenology Flowering Jun–Aug; fruiting Sep–Oct.
Habitat Alpine heath and rocky soils on mountain slopes
Elevation 400-2900 m (1300-9500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; e Asia (Japan)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Gaultheria pyroloides is native on Honshu Island, Japan, and has been collected from a restricted location in Alaska, on the northeast corner of Kiska Island in the western Aleutians.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 514.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Vaccinioideae > Gaultheria
Sibling taxa
G. hispidula, G. humifusa, G. ovatifolia, G. procumbens, G. shallon
Synonyms G. miqueliana
Name authority Hooker f. & Thomson ex Miquel: Ann. Mus. Bot. Ludguno-Batavi 1: 30. 1863 ,
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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