Ericaceae-Neotropical Blueberries
James L. Luteyn and Paola Pedraza-Peñalosa
The New York Botanical Garden

CHIMAPHILA

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     Chimaphila (Ericaceae: Pyroloideae) is a well-marked genus of five species that are found in boreal and temperate North America, Europe, and Asia;  two species are disjunct in the mountains of Mexico and Central America, one extending south to Panama and the other to Guatemala.  A subspecies of the latter is endemic to Hispaniola.
     Chimaphila is characterized by a subshrub habit, leafy stems, terminal inflorescences essentially as corymbs, choripetalous and actinomorphic flowers, filaments conspicuously dilated at or below the middle, superior ovaries, styles short and peltate, stigmas sessile, and loculicidal capsular fruits.  It is easily distinguished from both Pyrola and Orthilia by the corymbose inflorescence, dilated filaments, nectariferous disc (Orthilia only), short style sunk in the ovary, and complete dehiscence of the fruit with smooth valve margins. 

    The two species of Chimaphila that occur in the Flora Neotropica area clearly represent boreal and temperate elements that are disjunct in the mountains of Mexico, Central America, and Hispaniola.
     Pursh (1814) initiated the break-up of the Linnaean genus Pyrola when he segregated P. umbellata Linnaeus and P. maculata Linnaeus as the genus Chimaphila.  All subsequent workers have accepted this segregate.  A revision of the genus appears warranted and undoubtedly would improve Andres' (1913, 1914a) sectional classification.

CHIMAPHILA Pursh, Fl. amer. sept. 1: 279.  1814. Chimophila Radius, Pyrola & Chimaphila 7, 33.  1821, orth. var.  Pyrola Linnaeus sect. Chimaphila (Pursh) J. E. Smith in Rees, Cycl. 29 (I, 57).  1814.  Pyrola Linnaeus subgen. Chimaphila (Pursh) Rafinesque, Med. fl. 2: 71.  1830;  Dorr, Fl. Neotro. Monogr. 66: 37-45.  1995.  Lectotype designated by Britton & Brown, 1913: Chimaphila maculata (Linnaeus) Pursh.
 

[Pseva Rafinesque, Amer. Monthly Mag. Crit. Rev. 2(4): 266.  1818;  Rafinesque, J. Phys. Chim. Hist. Nat. Arts 89: 261.  1819, nom. nud., pro syn.]

Pyrola Linnaeus subgen. Psiseva Rafinesque, Med. Fl. 2: 70.  1830.  Type:  Pyrola umbellata Linnaeus (=Chimaphila umbellata (Linnaeus) W. P. C. Barton).

[Pipseva Rafinesque, Autik. bot. 105.  1840, nom. illeg.  Type:  Pipseva officinalis Rafinesque (=Pyrola umbellata Linnaeus = Chimaphila umbellata (Linnaeus) W. P. C. Barton).]


     Subshrubs, erect (rarely decumbent), to 5.3 dm tall, stems simple or branched at the base.  Leaves alternate to subopposite, clustered in 2-5(-6) pseudo-whorls along the stem, the pseudo-whorls often separated by conspicuous internodes;  leaf blades slightly revolute, coriaceous, often shiny or lustrous;  margin toothed or serrate.  Inflorescences stalked corymbs, subumbels, or rarely flowers solitary;  peduncles and pedicels finely papillate or smooth;  each flower subtended by a deciduous or persistent bract.  Flowers fragrant, nodding to divergent;  calyx persistent in fruit;  corolla crateriform to broadly crateriform, actinomorphic, the petals concave, broadly-ovate to obovate, thick, white, pink, or rose-pink, spreading to reflexed, without appendages or tubercles;  stamens included;  filaments dilated basally, the dilated portion ciliate, ciliolate, villous, or glabrous;  anther thecae wrinkled, papillate or smooth, terminated by anther tubes 0.5-1 mm long, diverging, pores ovate;  ovary subtended by a 5-angled, nectariferous disc;  style very short or subsessile, obconical or turbinate, depressed in the summit of the ovary;  stigma peltate, rounded, entire or with 5 undulate lobes.  Fruit a depressed-globose capsule, erect, borne on an erect pedicel, brown or dark-brown, dehiscence complete, the argins of the valves smooth;  seeds light golden-brown, the testa evidently without pits.  Chromosome number:  n=13.

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1.  Leaf blades lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, usually marked with white above
     on midribs and larger secondary veins (i.e., maculated), base obtuse, rounded,
     or widely cuneate, margins distantly serrate, teeth occurring the length of
     the margins;  dilated portion of the filaments villous ............................. C. maculata.
1.  Leaf blades oblanceolate or spatulate to elliptic, uniformly green above,
     base cuneate, margins finely serrate, teeth often restricted to the upper
     margins;  dilated portion of the filaments glabrous or merely papillate on
     the margins .....................................................................................  C. umbellata.

 

     This is an modified version of the taxonomic treatment of the neotropical species of Chimaphila (Ericaceae: Pyroloideae) by Laurence J. Dorr, from "Ericaceae--Part II. The Superior-Ovaried Genera (Monotropoideae, Pyroloideae, Rhododendroideae, and Vaccinioideae p.p.)."  The full treatment including specimen citations may be see in Flora Neotropica Monograph 66: 37-46 (Dorr, 1995b).  This on-line synthesis is published with permission of The New York Botanical Garden and Laurence J. Dorr.

 

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