Saturday 19 August 2023

One-flowered Wintergreen

 Apologies for the poor photos but I thought the plant was interesting enough to post even with bad images. It is One-flowered Wintergreen Moneses uniflora (Fr. Pyrole à une fleur), photographed at the Pont d'Espagne near Cauterets in the Pyrenees.

One-flowered Wintergreen Moneses uniflora, Hautes-Pyrenees, France. Photo by Loire Valley Time Travel.

This is a small herbaceous plant that survives several years thanks to its fine, branched underground rhizome. The round leaves grow in a rosette, evergreen and glossy, 1 to 2 cm in diameter. There is only one flower per rosette, nodding on a 5 to 10 cm stem. The white, slightly crinkled petals are spread wide and flat. Flowering is from May to October.

One-flowered Wintergreen Moneses uniflora, Hautes-Pyrenees, France. Photo by Loire Valley Time Travel.

The species is distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, wherever it is cool and damp (so often restricted to the mountains). It grows especially in damp shady conifer forests, amongst moss. Commercial pine plantations have caused its range to expand in Europe.


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