Pyrola picta
Pyrola
Nootka wintergreen, white vein shinleaf, white-vein pyrola, white-vein wintergreen
and, Latin pyrus, pear, pyrola, shinleaf, wintergreen
erect, glabrous.
sometimes highly reduced or absent;
petiole 4–25 mm, channeled adaxially, glabrous;
blade usually maculate, sometimes not maculate, dull and light green to purplish abaxially, dull or shiny and green to dark green, usually with white tissue bordering larger veins adaxially, ovate or ovate-elliptic to oblanceolate or spatulate, 8–80 × 4–49 mm, coriaceous, base obtuse to attenuate or decurrent, margins entire or denticulate to coarsely denticulate, apex obtuse to acute.
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.
1–2(–3), 4–24-flowered;
peduncular bracts 1–5, subulate to narrowly lanceolate, 3–9 × 1–2 mm, membranous, margins entire or erose-denticulate;
inflorescence bracts subulate to ovate-lanceolate, usually shorter than or, rarely, longer than subtended pedicels, 3.5–6 × 2–3 mm, herbaceous.
racemes, usually erect in flower and fruit, (symmetric);
peduncular bracts present or absent;
inflorescence bracts free from pedicels.
3–18 mm.
pendent in fruit;
bracteoles absent.
calyx lobes appressed or spreading in fruit, green with margins hyaline to white or pinkish, widely deltate to widely ovate, 1.1–3.9 × 1.1–2.4 mm, margins entire or erose-denticulate, apices acute;
petals greenish white, white, pink, or reddish, obovate, 4.2–11.2 × 3.1–7.1 mm, margins entire or obscurely denticulate;
stamens 5–9 mm;
filament base 0.5–0.8 mm wide;
anthers 1.8–5.5 mm, apiculations absent or 0.1–0.2 mm, thecae creamy white to pink, tubules orange, 0.4–0.8 mm, gradually narrowed from thecae, lateral walls usually touching for most of their lengths, pores 0.1–0.3 × 0.1–0.2 mm;
ovary smooth;
style exserted, 4–9 mm;
stigma (0.8–)1–1.6 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.
capsular, pendulous, dehiscence loculicidal, cobwebby tissue exposed by splitting valves at dehiscence.
depressed-globose, 3–6 × 6–9 mm.
ca. 1000, fusiform, winged.
= 23.
= 46.
Pyrola picta
Pyrola
E. Haber (1987) concluded that Pyrola picta, P. aphylla, and P. dentata are morphotypes of a single, highly variable species, a finding consistent with seed morphology data compiled by Hiroshi Takahashi (1993). Leafless scapes frequently are found attached to rhizomes bearing leafy shoots (W. H. Camp 1940; Haber 1987). Putative hybrids between P. picta and P. chlorantha have been reported at three locations in the western United States (Haber 1993). Cladistic analyses of molecular and morphologic data suggest that P. picta is sister to P. chlorantha (J. V. Freudenstein 1999b), which also occasionally is leafless.
(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.)
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 |
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