Common Wintergreen

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / parasite
telium of Chrysomyxa pirolata parasitises live Pyrola minor
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / parasite
telium of Pucciniastrum pyrolae parasitises live Pyrola minor

At first glance, lesser wintergreen looks a lot like round-leaved wintergreen. However, its leaves are lighter and not shiny and the stems are no longer than the leaf. Furthermore, the petals of the flower are not as open. Just like other members of the wintergreen family, lesser wintergreen spreads its fine, weighless seeds with the help of wind. An intricate net forms around the seed serving as a balloon to help its flotation.

This is a rare species in China.

Herbs (7–)12–20 cm tall. Rhizome creeping, long, somewhat slender, 0.5–1 mm in diam., branched, with sparse fine roots. Aerial stems ascending, short or somewhat long, 0.5–2.5 cm, not branched. Leaves appearing radical, 4–8, in 2 or 3 subverticils of 2–4 each; petiole 1–2.5 cm; leaf blade pale green abaxially, green adaxially, broadly elliptic to orbicular, 1.5–4.5 × 1.5–3 cm, base obtuse to truncate, margin crenulate to obsoletely serrulate, apex obtuse or mucronulate. Scape erect, 8–18 cm tall, angled, glabrous, with 3–5 broadly lanceolate-elliptic or broadly oblanceolate scales at base, up to 2 leafy scales or leaves near base, and up to 2 narrowly lanceolate to broadly linear scales near middle; raceme densely 7–16-flowered, 2–3.5 cm. Pedicel 3–6 mm; bracts broadly linear, 3–6 mm, usually longer than pedicel. Flowers drooping, regular, 6–7 mm in diam. Sepals depressed-deltoid or broadly ovate, 1–2 × 1–2 mm, apex obtuse to acuminate. Petals white, 3–6 mm, apex retuse. Filaments connivent, surrounding pistil, short, thick, glabrous; anthers yellow, 0.9–1.4 mm, without distinct tubules, apex truncate, opening by wide terminal pores. Style included, ca. 2 mm, straight or slightly curved, not dilated at apex into a ring; stigma with a collar and 5 radially arched lobes. Capsules 4–6 mm in diam. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug. 2n = 46.

Heilongjiang, Jilin, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Japan, N Korea, Russia; widely distributed in cool N temperate and subarctic zones].

Subalpine deciduous broad-leaved forests; 500–2500 m.

10-30 cm

Erxlebenia minor (ly.) Rydberg
Pyrola minor LSp. PI. 396. 1753.
Pyrola rosea Smith, Engl. Bot. pi. 2543. 1813.
Pyrola minor conferta Cham. & Schlecht. lyinnaea 1: 514. 1826.
Erxlebenia rosea Opiz, Seznam 41. 1852.
Amelia minor Alef. Linnaea 28: 25. 1856.
Pyrola minor minor iedeb. Fl. Ross. 2: 930. 1846.
Pyrola conferta Fisch.; Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 2: 930, as synonym. 1846.
Perennial, with a slender rootstock; petiole^ 1-3 cm. long; leaf -blades oval or orbicular, 1-4 cm. long, crenate, rather thin; scape with 1 or 2 scales, 1-2 dm. high; raceme short, 5-17flowered; bracts subulate, 2-3 mm. long, about equaling the pedicels; sepals triangular, acute or shortacuminate, as broad as long; corolla white or rose-colored, subglobose; petals orbicular, concave, 3-4 mm. long; anthers ovate, mucronate, dehiscent by 2 pores; tubes obsolete;style erect, about 1 mm. long; capsule about 6 mm. thick.
Type i^ocality: Colder part of Europe.
Distribution: Bogs, from Labrador to New England, Minnesota, Colorado, California, and Alaska; also Europe and northern Asia.

Pyrola minor, known by the common names snowline wintergreen, lesser wintergreen, and common wintergreen, is a plant species of the genus Pyrola. It has a Circumboreal distribution and can be found throughout the northern latitudes of Eurasia and North America.