The
photo at right shows a close-up of the inflorescence of white-veined pyrola. Photographed
along the trail to Lambertson Butte, Mt. Hood Wilderness...........August 14,
1998.
White-veined pyrola is an attractive perennial wildflower with short, sterile stems with several leaves and single, erect flower stems from 15-30 cm high from slender, spreading rhizomes. The leaves are ovate or oval in shape with obtuse tip lightly toothed margins. The blade is 3-7 cm long and dull green with broad white markings or mottling along the veins. The petioles are slightly shorter to about as long as the blade. The flower stems are typically reddish-brown in color and often leafless at the base.
The inflorescence is an elongate raceme of 10-25 pendant to spreading flowers. The spreading pedicels are 4-8 mm long and subtended by lanceolate bracts about as long. The sepals are greenish to reddish in color and much shorter than the petals. The yellowish, cream, or greenish-white to purplish petals are 6-8 mm long. The style is strongly curved downward.
White-veined pyrola may be found in dry coniferous forests.
White-veined pyrola may be found from British Columbia south to southern California and east to the Rocky Mts. of Montana and south to Colorado.
