Chimaphila

Pursh

Fl. Amer. Sept. 1: 279, 300. 1813 ,.

Common names: Prince’s-plume chimaphile
Etymology: Greek cheima, winter, and philia, love, alluding to evergreen habit
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 8. Treatment on page 385. Mentioned on page 374, 378, 386.

Subshrubs, chlorophyllous, autotrophic. Stems erect, rarely decumbent, glabrous or papillose to hispidulous, especially distally. Leaves cauline, alternate or pseudoverticillate in 2–5(–6) whorls; petiole present; blade maculate or not, lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, ovate, lanceolate-oblong, oblanceolate, elliptic, or spatulate, coriaceous, margins entire, serrulate, serrate, or crenate-serrate, revolute, surfaces glabrous or papillose. Inflorescences corymbs or subumbels, rarely solitary flowers, not lax in bud or flower, erect in fruit, (symmetric); peduncular bracts absent; inflorescence bracts adnate to pedicels, sometimes scarcely so. Pedicels erect in fruit, (glabrous or papillose to hispidulous); bracteoles absent. Flowers radially symmetric, nodding or spreading; sepals 5, connate proximally, often obscurely so, calyx lobes ovate, broadly ovate, or suborbiculate; petals 5, distinct, white, pink, or rose, often tinged violet, without basal tubercles, (surfaces glabrous), corolla rotate to crateriform or broadly crateriform; intrastaminal nectary disc present; stamens 10, included; filaments broad proximally, abruptly narrowed medially, slender distally, dilated basal portions ciliate or villous to densely villous; anthers oblong, without awns, with tubules, dehiscent by 2 crescent-shaped to round pores; pistil 5-carpellate; ovary imperfectly 5-locular; placentation intruded-parietal; style (included), straight, expanded distally; stigma entire or obscurely 5-ridged, 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 = 13.

Distribution

North America, Mexico, West Indies (Hispaniola), Central America, Eurasia.

Discussion

Species 5 (3 in the flora).

Ethnobotanical studies have documented a wide variety of drug and food uses of Chimaphila among more than two dozen tribes of Native Americans (D. E. Moerman 1998; K. Sheth et al. 1967).

Key

1 Inflorescence bracts broadly ovate to broadly obovate; inflorescences 1-3-flowered; calyx lobes (3-)5-6.5 mm; stigmas 1.6-2.2(-2.8) mm wide. Chimaphila menziesii
1 Inflorescence bracts acicular to linear-lanceolate; inflorescences (1-)2-7-flowered; calyx lobes 1-4.1 mm; stigmas 2-4 mm wide > 2
2 Leaf blades maculate; dilated basal portions of filaments densely villous. Chimaphila maculata
2 Leaf blades not maculate; dilated basal portions of filaments ciliate Chimaphila umbellata
... more about "Chimaphila"
Craig C. Freeman +
Prince’s-plume +  and chimaphile +
North America +, Mexico +, West Indies (Hispaniola) +, Central America +  and Eurasia. +
Greek cheima, winter, and philia, love, alluding to evergreen habit +
Fl. Amer. Sept. +
standley1988a +  and takahashi1986b +
Undefined subfam. Pyroloideae +, Undefined tribe Monotropaceae +  and Undefined tribe Pyrolaceae +
Chimaphila +
Ericaceae subfam. Monotropoideae +