Moneses

Illustrator: Barbara Alongi

Copyright: Flora of North America Association

Herbs, chlorophyllous, autotrophic. Stems erect, glabrous or papillose distally. Leaves cauline, sometimes appearing basal, alternate or pseudoverticillate in 1–4 whorls; petiole present; blade not maculate, broadly elliptic to orbiculate, subcoriaceous, margins crenate-serrate to serrate, plane, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences solitary flowers, not lax in bud or flower, erect in fruit; peduncular bracts present or absent. Pedicels absent. Flowers radially symmetric, spreading or nodding; sepals 5, connate proximally, often obscurely so, calyx lobes ovate to narrowly ovate; petals 5, distinct, creamy white, without basal tubercles, corolla rotate to broadly campanulate; intrastaminal nectary disc absent; stamens 10, included; filaments broad proximally, gradually narrowed medially, slender distally, glabrous; anthers oblong, without awns, with tubules, dehiscent by 2 round pores; pistil 5-carpellate; ovary imperfectly 5-locular; placentation intruded-parietal; style (exserted), straight, expanded distally; stigma 5-lobed, without subtending ring of hairs. Fruits capsular, erect, dehiscence loculicidal, no cobwebby tissue exposed by splitting valves at dehiscence. Seeds ca. 1000, fusiform, winged. x = 11, 12, 13, 16.

Distribution

North America, Eurasia, circumboreal.

Discussion

Species 1: North America, Eurasia; circumboreal.

Species 1

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Moneses uniflora