Monotropa

• Authority

  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. (Published by NYBG Press)

• Family

  Monotropaceae

• Scientific Name

  Monotropa

• Type

  Lectotype species. Monotropa uniflora Linnaeus (Britton & Brown, 1913: 674). The name is derived from the Greek monos, one, and tropos, direction; refers to the secund appearance of the inflorescences.

• Synonyms

  Hypopitys, Hypopithys Scop., Hypopithis Raf., Monotropa uniflora L.

• Description

  Genus Description - Roots shallow, forming an open system along which are often found more dense clumps of branched roots; ultimate branch segments usually free for a short distance. Inflorescences nodding, racemose or reduced to a solitary flower; bracts present, sometimes similar to perianth; bracteoles present in some specimens of M. hypopitys. Flowers nodding at anthesis, becoming erect in fruit, more or less fleshy, (3-)4-5(-6)-merous; calyx similar to corolla, quite distinct or apparently absent, similar or not in color to corolla, glabrous or sparsely glandular pubescent, color ranging from white to yellowish, orange, or pink shades; corolla cylindrical, or slightly flared distally, polypetalous, imbricate in bud, petals saccate at base, often pubescent on inner surface, apices acute to truncate, color ranging from white to yellowish, orange, or pink shades; stamens 8-10, generally twice as many as corolla lobes, in two series of alternating lengths, included, color similar to corolla, no appendages; anthers with connate sacs in a horizontal plane or erect and hippocrepiform, smooth, dehiscence terminal; ovary usually pubescent, 5(4-6) locular, placentation axile; nectary present as 8-10 lobes projecting basipetally from between staminal bases, paired opposite the saccate bases of the petals; style cylindric, slender or stout, elongate or short, included, conspicuously articulated with ovary; stigma umbilicate to deeply funnelform, with 4-6 shallow lobes, glabrous or with a dense ring of subtending hairs. Fruit a loculicidal capsule, pedicels erect at maturity, capsular segments persistent or irregularly deciduous, vascular bundles between separated capsular segments may persist in fruit linked by several lateral smaller vascular bundles; seeds spindleshaped, minute, 0.5-1 mm long, light brownish; embryo two-celled (Olson, 1980); chromosome number: n = 24 (Hagerup, 1944; Maloney & Finocchio, 1981; Baker & Parfitt, 1982) or 2n = 32 (Löve & Löve, 1982); Monotropa hypopitys, 2n = ca. 48 (Uotila & Pellinen, 1985).