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green wintergreen, green-flower shinleaf, green-flower wintergreen, greenish wintergreen, pyrole à fleurs verdâtres

and, Latin pyrus, pear, pyrola, shinleaf, wintergreen

Habit Plants rhizomatous, (0.7–)1.4–2.2(–2.7) dm. Herbs, chlorophyllous, autotrophic (achlorophyllous and heterotrophic in forms of P. chlorantha and P. picta).
Stems

erect, glabrous.

Leaves

sometimes reduced or absent;

petiole 8–60 mm, channeled adaxially, glabrous;

blade not or, rarely, obscurely maculate, dull and light green to purplish abaxially, shiny and dark green, rarely with white tissue bordering larger veins adaxially, ovate, elliptic, obovate, or round, (6–)18–28(–33) × (5–)10–30 mm, coriaceous, base rounded to truncate or decurrent, margins entire or crenulate to crenulate-serrulate, apex obtuse to rounded.

essentially basal or, sometimes, highly reduced or absent (P. chlorantha, P. picta), alternate;

petiole present;

blade maculate or not, elliptic, ovate-elliptic, oblong-elliptic, oblanceolate, oblong-obovate, ovate, obovate, spatulate, subreniform, reniform, or round, subcoriaceous to coriaceous, margins entire, denticulate, crenulate, crenate, or crenate-serrulate, plane or revolute, surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescences

1–2(–3) per stem, (1–)2–8(–17)-flowered;

peduncular bracts absent or 1(–2), subulate to linear-lanceolate, 2.8–5 × 0.5–0.8 mm, membranous, margins entire or erose-denticulate;

inflorescence bracts subulate to lanceolate, usually shorter than, rarely longer than, subtended pedicels, (2.3–)3–5(–7.7) × 0.5–0.8 mm, membranous.

racemes, usually erect in flower and fruit, (symmetric);

peduncular bracts present or absent;

inflorescence bracts free from pedicels.

Pedicels

3–8 mm.

pendent in fruit;

bracteoles absent.

Flowers

calyx lobes appressed or spreading in fruit, green or pinkish with margins hyaline to white, deltate to deltate-ovate, (0.9–)1.2–1.7 × (0.9–)1.3–1.9 mm, margins entire or obscurely erose-denticulate, apices acute to obtuse;

petals greenish white to yellowish white, obovate, (4–)4.5–9 × 3.3–5.5 mm, margins entire or obscurely erose-denticulate;

stamens 4–7.5 mm;

filament base 0.7–1.2 mm wide;

anthers (2.1–)2.5–3(–3.7) mm, apiculations absent or less than 0.1 mm, thecae creamy white or tan to yellowish, tubules yellowish brown, 0.7–1.1 mm, abruptly narrowed from thecae, lateral walls not touching or connivent distally, pores 0.2–0.4 × 0.1–0.2 mm;

ovary smooth;

style exserted, (4–)5–7 mm;

stigma 0.9–1.5 mm wide, lobes erect.

radially symmetric (bilaterally symmetric in P. minor), spreading or nodding;

sepals 5, connate proximally, often obscurely so, calyx lobes lanceolate, ovate, triangular, deltate, oblong, or obovate;

petals 5, distinct, white, greenish white, yellowish white, pink, or purplish red, without basal tubercles, corolla crateriform to broadly campanulate;

intrastaminal nectary disc absent;

stamens 10, exserted;

filaments broad proximally, gradually narrowed medially, slender distally, glabrous;

anthers oblong, without awns, with or without tubules, dehiscent by 2 round to elliptic or obovate pores;

pistil 5-carpellate;

ovary imperfectly 5-locular;

placentation intruded-parietal;

style (exserted or included), bent downward or straight (P. minor), expanded distally;

stigma 5-lobed, without subtending ring of hairs.

Fruits

capsular, pendulous, dehiscence loculicidal, cobwebby tissue exposed by splitting valves at dehiscence.

Capsules

depressed-globose, 3–4.5 × 3.5–6.4 mm.

Seeds

ca. 1000, fusiform, winged.

x

= 23.

2n

= 46.

Pyrola chlorantha

Pyrola

Phenology Flowering Jun–Aug.
Habitat Moist to dry, coniferous and deciduous forests
Elevation 10-3700 m (0-12100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; ID; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MT; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SD; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NL; NS; NT; NU; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Europe
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Mexico; Central America (Guatemala); Europe; Asia (including Sumatra)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

E. Haber (1993) interpreted some herbarium specimens with intermediate morphologies and abnormal pollen as putative hybrids between Pyrola chlorantha and P. minor, and between P. chlorantha and P. picta. Leafless forms of P. chlorantha can be distinguished reliably from those of P. picta by the size and shape of the calyx lobes.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species ca. 30 (7 in the flora).

The apparent absence of strong genetic discontinuities within many species complexes, as well as morphologic and cytologic uniformity, have challenged attempts to delimit species in Pyrola. Chromosome counts for all species are diploid (2n = 46) except for the boreal European species P. media, which is a tetraploid (2n = 92), and some triploid counts (2n = 69) for P. grandiflora. Natural hybrids have been reported widely. Some species complexes have been examined in detail; a modern, comprehensive monograph of the genus is needed. Of particular interest in the flora area are relationships among members of sect. Pyrola, which includes, among other species, North American P. americana, amphi-Pacific P. asarifolia, arctic and circumpolar P. grandiflora, and Eurasian P. rotundifolia Linnaeus. J. V. Freudenstein (1999b) found limited cladistic structure in Pyrola. Morphologic and molecular data support a clade comprising P. chlorantha and P. picta (including P. aphylla). Molecular data suggest that this clade is sister to one comprising P. elliptica and P. minor.

Pyrola americana, P. asarifolia, P. chlorantha, P. elliptica, and P. picta have a variety of drug, food, and ceremonial uses among a dozen tribes of Native Americans (D. E. Moerman 1998).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Styles (0.5-)0.8-1.5(-1.8) mm, included, straight; anthers 0.8-1.4 mm, tubules absent; flowers radially symmetric.
P. minor
1. Styles 4-10 mm, exserted, bent downward; anthers (1.6-)2.2-5.5 mm, tubules present; flowers bilaterally symmetric
→ 2
2. Inflorescence bracts as long as or longer than subtended pedicels (sometimes shorter than subtended pedicels in P. asarifolia subsp. asarifolia); calyx lobes longer than wide
→ 3
2. Inflorescence bracts usually shorter than subtended pedicels, rarely longer than subtended pedicels; calyx lobes ± as long as wide
→ 5
3. Filament bases 0.2-0.3 mm wide; anther apiculations absent or less than 0.1 mm, thecae creamy yellow to golden yellow, tubules yellow to yellowish brown.
P. grandiflora
3. Filament bases 0.5-1.1 mm wide; anther apiculations 0.1-0.5(-0.7) mm, thecae creamy white, greenish white, tan, pink, reddish, dark purple, or yellowish, tubules yellowish brown, orange, pink, reddish, or dark purple
→ 4
4. Calyx lobes ovate, ovate-oblong, or obovate, apices obtuse to acute; petals white, often suffused with pink.
P. americana
4. Calyx lobes triangular, apices acute to acuminate; petals white proximally and pinkish distally, or pink to purplish red throughout
P. asarifolia
5. Anther tubules abruptly narrowed from thecae, lateral walls not touching or connivent distally, 0.7-1.1 mm; calyx lobe apices acute to obtuse.
P. chlorantha
5. Anther tubules gradually narrowed (at least when viewed laterally) from thecae, lateral walls touching for most of their lengths or connivent distally, 0.3-0.8 mm; calyx lobe apices acute to acuminate
→ 6
6. Leaf blades not maculate or, rarely, maculate, broadly elliptic to oblong or oblong-obovate, margins crenulate or obscurely denticulate; petals white to greenish white; apices of calyx lobes acute to short-acuminate.
P. elliptica
6. Leaf blades usually maculate, sometimes not maculate, ovate or ovate-elliptic to oblanceolate or spatulate, margins entire or denticulate to coarsely denticulate, or plants leafless; petals greenish white, white, pink, or reddish; apices of calyx lobes acute.
P. picta
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 381. FNA vol. 8, p. 378. Author: Craig C. Freeman.
Parent taxa Ericaceae > subfam. Monotropoideae > Pyrola Ericaceae > subfam. Monotropoideae
Sibling taxa
P. americana, P. asarifolia, P. elliptica, P. grandiflora, P. minor, P. picta
Subordinate taxa
P. americana, P. asarifolia, P. chlorantha, P. elliptica, P. grandiflora, P. minor, P. picta
Synonyms P. oxypetala, P. virens, P. virens var. convoluta
Name authority Swartz: Kongl. Svenska Vetensk. Akad. Nya Handl. 31: 190, plate 5. 1810 , Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 396. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 188. 1754 ,
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