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.
Revision as of 00:14, 28 May 2020 by imported>Volume Importer

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 +