Orthilia secunda

One-sided wintergreen, One-Sided Wintergreen

Family: Ericaceae · Type: perennial · Native

One-sided wintergreen is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, southern Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino Mountains, San Jacinto Mountains, and Modoc Plateau in dry, shady conifer forests at elevations of 1,000 to 3,200 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces cream-white flowers in one-sided, arched racemes that remain nearly upright when fruiting. Growing with slender rhizomatous stems less than 20 centimeters tall, it forms a compact, evergreen herb with a somewhat shrubby appearance. Its leathery leaves are ovate-elliptic, 1.5 to 6 centimeters long, clustered near the base of the plant and ranging from entire to finely toothed. The pendant capsule fruits open from base to tip with fibrous margins, revealing the plant's distinctive reproductive strategy.

Habitat: Dry, shady, conifer forests

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 1000-3200 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRH, NCoRO, s CaRH, SNH, SnBr, SnJt, MP, SNE (exc W&ampI)

California counties: Tuolumne, Plumas, Sierra, Fresno, Mono, Siskiyou, Tulare, Alpine, Trinity, Humboldt, Nevada, Butte, Riverside, El Dorado, Madera, Tehama, Inyo, Modoc, Shasta, Amador, Del Norte, Mariposa, Placer, San Bernardino, Glenn, Mendocino

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.