Orthilia

Description

Orthilia secunda is a flowering plant of the genus Orthilia in the family Ericaceae. It is the only member of the genus. Its common names are sidebells wintergreen, one-sided-wintergreen and serrated-wintergreen. It is also called one-sided pyrola, one-sided shinleaf, and one-sided wintergreen. It was previously part of genus Pyrola, the wintergreens. The plant has a circumboreal distribution, growing throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. The American wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, belongs to a different genus. Orthilia secunda is a mixotroph. It obtains about one half of its carbon from mycorrhizal networks. Mycorrhizal fungi obtain carbon through the roots of nearby trees. Orthilia then obtains the carbon from the fungi through its roots. No counterflow of nutrients has been observed.