Greenflowered Wintergreen

Herbs 11–18 cm tall. Rhizome long, slender, branched. Aboveground stem very short. Leaves 2–4, basal; petiole 2–5 cm; leaf blade pale abaxially, dark green adaxially, rather dull, suborbicular, 1–1.6 × 1–1.2 cm, leathery, base rounded to acute, margin minutely crenulate, apex rounded. Scape including inflorescence 10–20 cm high, usually with a solitary scale; raceme laxly 2–8-flowered, slightly nutant, nodding, 1.5–3.5 cm. Pedicel 4–5 mm; bracts lanceolate. Flowers cup-shaped, ca. 1 cm in diam. Sepals triangular-ovate, ca. as long as wide, 1–1.5 mm, basal widest 1–1.5 mm, apex ± acute or obtuse. Petals greenish white, ovate or elliptic, 5–6 mm. Filaments dilated at base; anthers yellow, oblong, mucronate at distal end; tubules curved, pores oblique. Style exserted, longer than petals, strongly bent, somewhat thickened upwards, dilated at apex into ring. Capsule ca. 6 mm in diam. Fl. Jun, fr. Aug.

Nei Mongol [Mongolia].

Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica forests; below 1000 m.

Pyrola oxypetala Aust.; A. Gray, Man. ed. 5. 302. 1867
Perennial with a slender rootstock; stem above ground very short; petioles 1-3 cm. long; leaf-blades ovate, 1-2.5 cm. long, acute at each end, subentire; scape with 1 or 2 subulate scales, including the inflorescence about 2 dm. high; raceme 8-10-flowered; bracts subulate, shorter than the pedicels, 5 mm. long; sepals deltoid, 1.5 mm. long, acute, longer than broad; petals white, ovate, acute, about 5 mm. long; filaments dilated below; anthers oblong, mucronate at the distal end, not inverted ; tubes short, somewhat curved ; style only slightly curved, thickened upwards.
Type locality: Wooded hillside near Deposit, Delaware County, New York.
Distribution: Known only from the type locality.

Pyrola chlorantha, the greenflowered wintergreen, is a species of the plant genus Pyrola. It has a circumboreal distribution and is found throughout the northern latitudes of Eurasia and North America.

Pyrola chlorantha is found in the Northeastern United States and the Western United States, such as the Sierra Nevada in California. It is considered an endangered species in several of the U.S. states.