One-sided Pyrola

(Orthilia secunda)

 

   

 

 

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-sided Pyrola (Orthilia secunda [L.] House)

Identification: Flowers green to green-white with 5 petals. Flowers arranged in a terminal spike with the flowers located on only one side of the long, flowering stem. Leaves concentrated in an irregular basal rosette, green, ovate with a petiole. Leaf outer margin weakly toothed. Plant 4 to 8 inches.

Distribution: Found across Canada. Southward in the east to the northern United States and in the mountains to Virginia. In the west found along the rocky mountains to Mexico and in California. Also native to Europe and northern Asia.

Habitat: One-sided Pyrola is found in forest and thickets.

Flowering period: June to August.

Similar Species: One-sided Pyrola is easily identified by the one-sided spikes of greenish-white flowers.

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