1. Goodyera pubescens (Willd.) R. Br. (downy rattlesnake plantain)

Pl. 113 h, i; Map 465

Plants with branched rhizomes. Flowering stems 15–40 cm long, densely glandular‑hairy, with 20–50 flowers in a dense spike toward the tip. Leaves 4–10, basal, 3–8 cm long, the flowering stem also with reduced, triangular bracts, oblong‑elliptic, tapering abruptly to short, winged petioles, dark green with white midribs and veins, herbaceous, glabrous. Sepals 4–5 mm long, ovate, concave, white with a green midvein and tip. Lateral petals 4–6 mm long, oblong‑spathulate, white, arching over the upper sepal. Lip 3–4 mm long, strongly expanded into a 2‑lobed pouch, the tip with a blunt, reflexed margin, white, the outer surface with minute tubercles. Column 2 mm long, white. Stamen 1, staminodes lacking. Capsules ascending, 4–10 mm long, globose to broadly elliptic in outline, strongly ribbed. 2n=26. July–September.

Uncommon in the eastern half of the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions (eastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Minnesota and Arkansas). Acidic soils overlaying sandstone or chert in narrow ravines, particularly toward the base of north‑facing slopes, in dry to mesic upland forests usually containing Pinus echinata.

This species is often encountered as colonies of several rosettes connected by the creeping rhizomes. The flowers are pollinated by bumblebees.