Entire plant lemon-yellow or faintly pink in color, hairy, 3 to 10 inches tall from a dense mass of fleshy root-fibers. Stems scaly, the scales crowded on the lower part of the stems, one-eighth to one-half of an inch long, the upper ones sometimes toothed. Flowers nodding in a one-sided raceme which becomes erect. Terminal flowers usually five-parted, the lateral ones three or four-parted; petals three-fourths to 1 inch long, slightly pubescent and ciliate like the sepals; stigma not retrorsely bearded, the style sparingly pubescent. Fruit capsules oval, one-fourth to 1 inch long.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 153

A. Pinesap; False Beechdrops   Hypo pitys americana

A. Pinesap; False Beechdrops - Hypo pitys americana

In open or sandy woods, Ontario and New York, south to North Carolina. Flowering from July until September.

The Hairy Pinesap (Hypopitys lanuginosa (Michaux) Nuttall) is usually tawny or crimson and more conspicuously hairy than the species described above; the stigma retrorsely bearded, the sepals and petals long ciliated. By some botanists the two are regarded as forms of the same species.