Lvs firm, mostly broadly elliptic to subrotund, 2.5-7 cm, broadly rounded above, rounded to truncate or short-cuneate at base, and always somewhat decurrent on the petiole; scapes 1.5-3 dm, usually with 1 or 2 scale-lvs; sep oblong or ovate-oblong, 3-4 mm, nearly twice as long as wide, erose or undulate, not overlapping at base; pet white, 8-10 mm; anthers 3-3.5 mm, minutely cuspidate at base, abruptly narrowed into very short tubes above; style declined; 2n=46. Dry or moist woods and bogs; circumboreal, s. in Amer. to N.C., Ky., Ind., and Minn. July, Aug. Our plants are nearly all var. americana (Sweet) Fernald, as described above. The more northern, circumboreal var. rotundifolia, smaller in all parts, the sep 1.5-3 mm, the pet 5-7 mm, the anthers 2-2.5 mm, reaches our range in N.S.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.