Pyrola

Small Wintergreen ( Pyrola minor)

Wintergreen ( Pyrola ) is a genus of herbaceous evergreen plants of the family Ericaceae ( Ericaceae ). Previously they were treated as a separate family wintergreen plants ( Pyrolaceae ), today they are counted among the subfamily Monotropoideae. According to the property, not to collect the leaves in winter, the genus wintergreen is called. It is one of them 35 species worldwide ( some earlier Pyrola species have now been made into separate genera - see below).

Wintergreen ( Pyrola ) is not to be confused with the wintergreen shrub ( Gaultheria procumbens ).

Features

Wintergreen plants are perennial, dwarf herbaceous plants whose leaves are arranged in rosettes. The leaves are dense and evergreen. The hermaphrodite flowers are bell-shaped or radially arched and four to fünfzählig. You have 8 to 10 stamens ( anthers ) and a superior ovaries, arising from the capsule fruits. Like all heather -like also produce the Pyrola species in their pollen anthers, which open at the apical pores. The pollen itself is formed in tetrads and is sticky as it should be, spread by insects, especially flies. The flowers are produced in summer and the numerous small seeds released in the fall of the inconspicuous seed capsules. In addition, it comes to vegetative propagation by stolons. Both for the seedling development as well as for the supply of nutrients play root fungi ( mycorrhiza ) play a decisive role.

Occurrence and distribution

Wintergreen species prefer shaded, fresh to moist, nutrient-poor, but rather base- rich, humus-rich locations such as forest land (in poorer coniferous and mixed forests ), Birch or Moore dunes sinks. Their distribution can be locally very limited. But in the deposits they grow then often " sociable " because clonally via earthborn vegetatively spreading, especially in the northern regions.

The genus Pyrola is native to the cool temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere (Europe, Asia and North America).

Use

The Pyrola species and its relatives contain the (toxic ) glycoside aucubin, which forms the disinfectant hydroquinone in the urine. For this reason they have been used in folk medicine for the treatment of bladder disorders.

Species of the genus Pyrola (selection)

• Pyrola americana Sweet (also known as variety americana var ( Sweet) Fernald Pyrola rotundifolia L. too ); it occurs in the U.S. and Canada
• Pyrola asarifolia Michx. ; it was found in Asia and North America
• Grünblütiges wintergreen ( P. chlorantha Sw. ); it is found in Europe, Asia and North America
• Pyrola elliptica Nutt.; it occurs in Canada and USA
• Pyrola grandiflora radius; it comes in Europe ( Iceland, Russia ), Asia, North America and Greenland before
• Middle wintergreen ( P. media Sw. ); it is found in Europe and Asia
• Small wintergreen ( P. minor L.); it is found in Eurasia and North America
• Pyrola norvegica boys; it is found in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia
• Pyrola picta Sm; It is found in Canada and in the U.S.
• Round-leaved wintergreen ( P. rotundifolia L.); occurs in Europe, Asia, North America (here in the variety var americana ( Sweet) Fernald ) and Greenland before.

The following species are still partly assigned to the genus Pyrola:

• Umbels umbellata ( Chimaphila umbellata (L.) Bart. )
• Moss eye ( Moneses uniflora (L.) A. Gray )
• Birngrün ( Orthilia secunda (L.) House)