Leaves: blade distinctly lined with white or greenish white on veins throughout, broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, 2.1-6.2 × 1.3-3 cm, apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescences 10-57-flowered, cylindric (equally dense on all sides); peduncle 11-35 cm. Flowers: lateral sepals 3.1-5.3 mm; petals distinct; hood 3.6-5.7 mm; lip scrotiform, 2.5-4.2 × 2.2-3.5 mm, apex reflexed, outer surface slightly tuberculate, inner surface with somewhat thickened veins, without glandular processes; anther inflexed, immersed in cup-shaped clinandrium, apex blunt; pollinia blunt; rostellum with marginal notch 0.1-0.4 mm deep; viscidium orbiculate. 2n = 26. Flowering mid Jul--early Sep. Almost any wooded habitat with acid surface conditions; most frequent on moist humus soils in shady, upland woods of hemlock, pine, oak, or maple, less frequent in lowland woods, bogs, swamps; 0--1600 m; N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis. Goodyera pubescens is very different in its lip and column morphology, phenolic constituents, and chromosome number (2n = 26) from other North American Goodyera species, indicating that it is not closely related to them.
Stout, 2-4 dm; scape with 4-14 (avg 7) bracts; lf-blades ovate or lance-ovate, 3-6 cm, the dark green midrib flanked by a pair of broad white stripes, and the primary and secondary lateral veins forming a white reticulum; infl dense, cylindric, 4-10 cm; galea broadly elliptic, very convex, 4-5.5 mm, upturned at the tip; lateral sep broadly ovate to obovate, 3.5-5 mm, abruptly short-acuminate; lip subglobose, 3.5-5 mm, its straight beak less than 1 mm, scarcely projecting beyond the ventricose body; rostellar beak obsolete; 2n=26. Dry woods; s. Me. and s. Que. to Minn., s. to S.C., Ga., Ala., and Ark. July, Aug. (Epipactis p.; Peramium p.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.