One-flowered Wintergreen

(Moneses uniflora)

 

   

 

 

Color Drawing: Wolcott, M.V. 1925. North American Wild Flowers. Smithsonian Institution.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

One-flowered Wintergreen (Moneses uniflora [L.] Gray)

Identification: A small plant. Flower nodding, white or pink, waxy, with 5 petals and a rounded, green ovary. Stigma subdivided. Flower solitary, on a long flowering stalk arising from a basal rosette of leaves. Leaves rounded with short petioles. Plant 2 to 5 inches in height.

Distribution: A northern species found across Canada and southward to Minnesota and Pennsylvania in the east, and in the Rocky Mountains to Colorado in the west. Also native to Europe and northern Asia.

Habitat: One-flowered Wintergreen is an inhabitant of bogs and cool woods.

Flowering period: June to August.

Similar Species: The solitary, small flower arising from a rosette of rounded leaves is distinctive. Species of the genus Pyrola have spikes of flowers.

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