Cheilotheca Hook.f.

Wu, Lei, Jiang, Ri-Hong, Yang, Jin-Cai & Liu, Yan, 2016, New records of Cheilotheca (Ericaceae, Monotropoideae) from China including the description of a new species, Phytotaxa 260 (2), pp. 193-198 : 194

Cheilotheca Hook.f. in Bentham & Hooker (1876: 607)

Synonyms:― Wirtgenia H. Andres (1914: 61) , nom. illeg., non Sch. Bip.(1842: 435); Andresia Sleumer (1967: 669) .

Type:― Cheilotheca khasiana Hook.f. in Bentham & Hooker (1876: 608).

Main diagnostic characters:— saprophytic, white or coloured herb; stem erect, 2–4-forked; leaves scale-like; flowers solitary, erect at anthesis; petals 3, oblong, imbricate and thickened at apex; stamens 6, filaments compressed, villous; anther-locules paralleled or confluent at apex; ovary glabrous, 1-locular, placentation parietal; stigma slightly depressed at apex; fruit an erect berry.

The genus is a new record for China.It is often confused with Monotropa Linnaeus (1753: 387) and Monotropastrum Andres (1936: 766) by sharing similar white stem, scale-like leaves, and bisexual and actinomorphic flowers, but differs from the former by parietal placentation, unilocular ovary and baccate fruit, and from the latter by erect flowers at anthesis, oblong petals with incrassate apex, and stamens usually 6.