One-flowered Moneses
Moneses uniflora
Heather family (Ericaceae)
This is one of the daintiest and loveliest of wildflowers. As you hike, look for it in the decaying needles and mosses of dry to moist spruce forests. Because the plant spreads from underground roots, it is common to find two or three or even twenty plants within a few feet of each other. The deep green, , round are often more noticeable than the nodding flower head, but once you see the flower, you forget the leaves. You will very commonly find Single Delight in the company of other Pyrolaceae, especially One-sided Wintergreen (Orthilia secunda) (whose leaves are confusingly similar to those of Single Delight), and the Orchidaceae, Rattlesnake-Plantain Orchid (Goodyera oblongifolia).
Linnaeus named this species Pyrola uniflora in 1753; Richard Salisbury (1761-1829) created the Moneses probably in the late 1700s; Thomas Nuttall renamed the plant Moneses reticulata in 1843; and Asa Gray gave the present name in 1848. "Moneses" is a combination of the Greek "monos" ("one") and "hesis" ("delight").
©2009 Walter Siegmund
