Pyrola americana

American wintergreen
1913 illustration [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Ericaceae
Genus:	Pyrola
Species:	P. americana
Binomial name
Pyrola americana Sweet
Synonyms [2]
Pyrola asarifolia subsp. americana(Sweet) Křísa Pyrola rotundifolia var. americana(Sweet) Fernald

Pyrola americana, the American wintergreen, is a plant species native to Canada and the United States.

Description

Pyrola americana is a small herb rarely more than 4 cm tall, spreading by means of underground rhizomes. Leaves are round to egg-shaped, up to 8 cm long, usually dark green with whitish tissue along the veins. Flowers are white to pinkish. Fruit is a dry capsule about 4 mm across. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]}

Distribution and habitat

It has been reported from every Canadian province from Newfoundland to Manitoba, as well as from St. Pierre & Miquelon plus the northeastern US from Maine south along the Appalachian Mountains to extreme northeastern Tennessee. It also occurs in all the Great Lakes states and in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It grows in moist forests up to an elevation of 2100 m. ^{[3] [9]}

References

1. Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 2: 668.
2. Tropicos
3. Flora of North America v 8 p 380
4. Sweet, Robert. 1830. Hortus Britannicus, ed. 2 341.
5. Křísa, Bohdan. 1966. Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 85(4): 628.
6. Fernald, Merritt Lyndon. 1920. Rhodora 22(259): 122.
7. Fernald, M. 1950. Gray's Manual of Botany (ed. 8) i–lxiv, 1–1632. American Book Co., New York.
8. Connecticut Botanical Society
9. BONAP (Biota of North America Project) floristic synthesis, Pyrola americana