These are perennial evergreen herbs (thus wintergreen) with long rootstocks. The leaves are thick and leathery. The flowers are perfect, in racemes or corymbs, with 4 or 5 petals and sepals, and 8 or 10 stamens. The fruit is a capsule.
Note: some authours split the Monotropa out into the Monotropaceae - these being parasitic or saprophytic. There is no green coloring. In Manitoba represented by a single species: Monotropa uniflora. Monotropa hypopitys L. (syn: Hypopitys monotropa Crantz) is reported in Manitoba by the Conservation Data Centre list but it is not reported in the literature.
Genera found in Manitoba:
Chimaphila Moneses Monotropa Pyrola