Plants rhizomatous, 1.2-2.7 (-3.3) dm. Leaves: petiole 4-20 mm, channeled adaxially, glabrous; blade dull and light green abaxially, shiny and green adaxially, (10-)20-47(-58) × 7-28(-35) mm, base rounded to acute, apex rounded to acute. Inflorescences (2-)3-29-flowered; peduncle 10-20(-25) cm, peduncular bracts absent or 2-7, subulate to narrowly or broadly lanceolate, 3-9 × 1-2 mm, membranous, margins entire or erose-denticulate; inflorescence bracts subulate to lanceolate-ovate or narrowly ovate, ca. as long as pedicels they subtend, 4-9 × 0.4-1.8 mm, herbaceous. Pedicels (1-)3-7(-9) mm. Flowers: calyx lobes appressed or spreading in fruit, entirely green or margins hyaline to white or pinkish, 0.5-1.5 × 0.5-1.3 mm, margins erose-denticulate, sometimes obscurely so, apex rounded to obtuse; petals broadly ovate, 4.5-6 × 3-4 mm, margins erose-denticulate or irregularly toothed; stamens 4-8 mm; filament base 0.1-0.3 mm wide; anthers 1.2-1.8 mm, thecae tan or light brown, pores 0.2-0.5 × 0.2-0.4 mm; ovary smooth; style 3-5(-7) mm; stigma 1.4-2 mm wide. Capsules depressed-globose, 3-5 × 4-6 mm. 2n = 38. Flowering Jun-Aug. Dry to moist, coniferous, mixed, and deciduous forests, bogs, arctic and alpine tundra; 10-3200 m; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., Wis., Wyo.; Mexico; Central America (Guatemala); Eurasia. Plants in open, alpine and arctic habitats often have leaf blades orbiculate to orbiculate-ovate, 10-20 mm, apices obtuse, anthers ca. 1 mm, and styles 3-4.5 mm, and have been called Orthilia secunda subsp. obtusata. E. Haber (1972) concluded that these characters vary too freely among populations to warrant distinction. The Southern Carrier of British Columbia made a decoction from the roots, which they used as an eyewash (D. E. Moerman 1998).
Lvs elliptic to broadly ovate or subrotund, 1.5-4 cm, obtuse or rounded, entire to crenate-serrate, obtuse or rounded at base, often separated by conspicuous internodes; scape 1-2 dm; raceme crowded, secund; sep semi-orbicular to ovate, 0.5-1 mm; pet white or greenish, 5 mm; anthers 1.5-2 mm, truncate, opening by large pores, rounded at base; style elongate, exsert at anthesis; 2n=38. Moist woods and mossy bogs; circumboreal, in Amer. s. to N.J., Md., Ind., Minn., and N.M. Differs from other spp. of Pyrola in having a 10-lobed, hypogynous disk, basally bituberculate pet, and simple pollen grains (not in tetrads), and perhaps best considered to form a distinct genus, Orthilia secunda (L.) House. (Ramischia s.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.