Indian-pipe, monotrope uniflore

Monotropa brittonii Small

Inflorescences solitary flowers, 5-30 cm; axis white. Pedicels nodding at anthesis, erect in fruit. Flowers: sepals (3-)5(-6), similar to subtending bracts, lanceolate to oblong, 7-10 × 4-6 mm; petals (3-)5(-6), white to pinkish or reddish, obovate, 10-20 × 5-15 mm, base slightly saccate, margins entire, apex rounded or, rarely, slightly lacerate, adaxial surfaces with scattered hairs; nectary lobes 10, elongate, curved-cylindric; stamens 8-14; filaments glabrous or sparsely hairy; anthers horizontal at anthesis, transversely ellipsoid to depressed-ovoid, abaxial pair of sacs smaller; ovary 6-12 × 5-9 mm, glabrous or sparsely hairy; style 2-7 × 2-5 mm, glabrous or sparsely hairy; stigma broadly funnelform, 2-6 mm diam., not subtended by ring of crowded hairs. Capsules 5-segmented; segments persistent after seed dispersal, stout, 7-11 × 5-12 mm, often connected along margins by fine, pinnate, vascular strands. Seeds 0.5-1 mm, mostly membranously winged. 2n = 32, 48.

Flowering early summer-fall. Moist to dry, coniferous and mixed-deciduous forests; 0-3000 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ala., Ark., Calif., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis.; s Mexico; Central America; South America (Colombia); s, e Asia.