PLANT: Perennial scapose herb with slender rhizome-like root. LEAVES: in basal rosette; blades ovate, elliptic to obovate, 1-2.5 cm long; apex rounded; bases partly decurrent; teeth small, rounded; petiole generally shorter than blade. Scapes to 8 cm tall. FLOWER: single, actinomorphic, drooping; sepals ovate, about 3 mm long, the apex rounded, the margins fringed; petals waxy-white to pinkish, widely spread, entire or minutely fringed, without basal tubercles on upper side; filaments tapered from base, glabrous; anthers with prominent tubes and pores, the sacs about 3 mm long; pollen in tetrads; style straight; stigmatic lobes 5, prominent and marginal. FRUIT: an erect globose capsule without fibers connecting the opened valves. NOTES: A monotypic genus with a wide distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. (Greek: monos = single + hesis = delight; in reference to the single flower). REFERENCES: Haber, Erich. 1992. Pyrolaceae. Ariz.-Nev. Acad. Sci. 26(1)2.
Pet 5; filaments slender, slightly widened near the base; anthers subapically attached, the pollen-sacs narrowed above the filament and each with an apical pore; ovary subglobose, concave at the top; style well developed; stigma peltate, with 5 erect marginal lobes; capsule subglobose, opening from the top down; delicate perennial from slender creeping roots, with 1-4 sets of deciduous, opposite or ternate lvs near the base; fls white, solitary, terminal, nodding, long-peduncled. Monospecific.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.