Moneses uniflora - One-flowered Wintergreen

Phylum: Magnoliophyta - Class: Equisetopsida - Order: Ericales - Family: Ericaceae

Moneses uniflora is, surprisingly perhaps, a member of the family Ericaceae, which contains heaths and heathers that are much more woody and robust that these shy little woodland flowers.

Description

One-flowered Wintergreen, a perennial alpine plant, and has dark-green shiny oval leaves 10 to 25 mm long borne in a basal rosette. The undersides of the leaves are matt and greyish green. Plants, typically 5 to 10 mm tall, each produce a single nodding five-petalled white (occasionally pale pink) flower typically 15 to 25 mm across. Hard to miss once a flower is fully open is the large green ovary surrounded by ten anthers, the conspicuous style, and the five-pronged stigma. The flowers of One-leaved Wintergreen are said to be fragrant, but since they grow almost invariably in damp mossy woodland it's not often that a human nose encounters this wildflower other than by intent!

Distribution

Moneses uniflora is found in many parts of mainland Europe, but in the UK it is a very rare find and mainly confined to Scotland. This species is also recorded in parts of Asia and North America.

Habitat

Almost invariably, One-flowered Wintergreen grows in mossy conifer forests (particularly with spruce trees) at altitudes above 500 metres.

The flowers of Moneses uniflora are perfumed.

Blooming times

Moneses uniflora flowers from May to mid August, depending on altitude.

Etymology

Moneses, the genus name, comes from Greek and means 'solitary delight.' The specific epithet uniflora comes from Latin and means 'one flowered' - so the scientific name really goes to hgreat lengths to explain exactly how many flowers we can expect to see on one of these plants.

The One-flowered Wintergreen plants shown on this page were photographed in Italy and in Slovenia in early June.

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