Current botanists include the family Pyrolaceae, the Wintergreen Family, in this family.
Rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum).
Also called Great Laurel. Big bushes with large,
leathery evergreen leaves and ball-like clusters of
white or pinkish flowers, these ancestors of garden
Rhododendrons are unmistakable. The flowers are white,
often blushed with pink, especially when they are
young. The upper petal is marked with greenish-yellow
spots. Rhododendron can grow in deep shade, although
it seems to bloom more prolifically in the sun.
Rhododendron nudiflorum
Kalmia latifolia
Epigaea repens
Gaultheria procumbens
Gaylussacia baccata
Vaccinium stamineum
Vaccinium vacillans
☛Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora) are included by most botanists in this family; in the classification on which our list is based, they were included in the Wintergreen family Pyrolaceae. We list them in both families.
Indian Pipes (Monotropa uniflora).
Indian Pipes are strange little plants that have no
chlorophyll. They get their food by theft: they steal
it from little fungi in a process called myco-heterotrophy.
Since they have no chlorophyll, they have no
particular need for light; and they are often found
deep in the woods. They bloom in late July. As they
age (which happens very quickly), the dangling bells
of these peculiar plants turn more and more upward;
eventually, when they go to seed, they will be
completely vertical, and completely black.