General: Perennial herb from slender rhizomes; sterile shoots with several, or a rosette of, leaves; flowering stems 1 to several, 10-30 cm tall, with several lance-shaped bracts.
Leaves: Sometimes leafless; usually with at least a few basal leaves, evergreen, leathery, elliptic to egg-shaped (or oblanceolate), the blades 2-7 cm long, pointed or rounded at the tip, blunt to pointed at the base, entire to minutely-toothed, upper surfaces often dark green and greyish-mottled along the main veins, sometimes pale green and not mottled, lower surfaces often purple, sometimes bluish-waxy when young; stalks to 7 cm long.
Flowers: Inflorescence a 5- to 25-flowered terminal raceme, the flowers about 1 cm wide, weakly bilaterally symmetric; flower stalks spreading, 4-10 mm long, from linear to lanceolate bracts less than length of stalks; corollas open, the petals yellowish or greenish-white to purplish, oval to egg-shaped, 6-8 mm long; sepals green to reddish, triangular to egg-shaped, about 2 mm long, tips pointed; anthers 2-5.5 mm long, sharp-pointed on the lower tips, pores on the sides of short tubes; styles declined, curved, about 10 mm long.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shadetolerant/intolerant, submontane to montane, Western North American forb; its occurrence decreases with increasing elevation and latitude. Species occurs on moderately dry to fresh, nitrogen-medium soils. Widespread and scattered in coniferous forests on water-shedding sites. Usually associated with Hylocomium splendens, Linnaea borealis, and Pleurozium schreberi. Characteristic of friable Mor and acidic Moder humus forms.
BC Ministry of Environment:BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer,
the authoritative source for conservation information in British Columbia.
Synonyms and Alternate Names
Pyrola aphylla var. leptosepala Nutt. Pyrola aphylla var. paucifolia T.J. Howell Pyrola blanda Andres Pyrola conardiana Andres Pyrola dentata Sm. Pyrola dentata var. apophylla Copeland Pyrola dentata var. integra Gray Pyrola pallida Greene Pyrola paradoxa Andres Pyrola picta subsp. dentata (Sm.) Piper Pyrola picta subsp. integra (Gray) Piper Pyrola picta subsp. pallida Andres Pyrola picta var. dentata (Sm.) Dorn Pyrola septentrionalis Andres Pyrola sparsifolia Suksd.