Orthilia secunda (L.) House

  • Family

    Pyrolaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Orthilia secunda (L.) House

  • Primary Citation

    Amer. Midl. Naturalist 7: 134. 1921

  • Basionym

    Pyrola secunda L.

  • Common Names

    sidebells wintergreen, sidebells, oneside wintergreen, sidebells wintergreen

  • Description

    Description: Herbs or subshrubs, 1.2-2.7(-3.3) dm tall. Leaves glossy, ovate, broadly-ovate, or ovate-elliptic to orbicular, (1-)2-4.7(-5.8) x 0.7-2.8(-3.5) cm, basally rounded to acute, apically acute, obtuse, rounded, or mucronulate, surface discolorous, light green above, pale green below; petioles channeled above, smooth, 0.4-2 cm long, reddish-brown. Inflorescences usually solitary, erect, (6-)8-15(-20)-flowered; scape terete, 1-2(-3) dm tall, smooth; scape bracts membranous, subulate to narrowly-ovate or broadly-lanceolate, (3-)4-9 x 1-2 mm, base auriculate and clasping, apex acuminate (rarely apiculate), margin somewhat hyaline, slightly erose-denticulate, light reddish-brown; flower-bearing portion of scape 2.5-5 cm tall, expanding in fruit, finely papillate or smooth; pedicels terete, finely papillate or smooth, (1-)3-7(-9) mm long, light reddish-brown; bracts subtending the pedicels membranous, subulate to lanceolate-ovate or narrowly-ovate, abruptly acute, ± equal in length to the pedicels, 4-9 x ca. 1 mm, margin somewhat hyaline, slightly erose-denticulate, light reddish-brown, persistent. Flowers with calyx 1-2 mm long, the lobes broadly triangular to ovate, bases overlapping, apically obtuse or rounded, slightly erose-denticulate, 0.5-1 x 0.75-1.2 mm, margin erose-denticulate, greenish; corolla ca. 5-6 mm long and ca. 4 mm diam., the petals broadly ovate, 4.5-6 x 3-4 mm, slightly erose-denticulate or irregularly toothed at the apex; stamens ca. 4-6 mm long; filaments ca. 3-6 mm long; anthers 1.2-1.8 mm long, the anther sacs light-brown; ovary subglobose; style 3-5(-6) mm long; stigma ca. 1 mm diam. Capsule 3-5 x 4-6 mm.

    Distribution: Jalisco, the high mountains of south-central Mexico (the Neovolcanic Belt and southern Sierra Madre Oriental), and south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the mountains of Chiapas and western Guatemala; rocky substrates on moist (rarely dry), shady slopes and stream banks in Abies-Pinus, Alnus-Pinus, Pinus-Quercus, Abies, Pinus, or Abies-Pseudotsuga-Pinus forests, occasionally in disturbed areas at (1850-)2000-4038 m; flowering Jun through Sep; fruiting Jul through Mar.

    Type: N. Europe. "In Europae borealis sylvis," s.d. (fl, fr), without collector, Herb. Linn. 568.5 [lectotype designated by Dorr & Barrie (1993): LINN n.v.].

  • Floras and Monographs

    Orthilia secunda (L.) House: [Article] Luteyn, James L., et al. 1995. Ericaceae, Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae P.P.). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 66: 560.