Pyroloideae is a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classifica ...

of plants in the family

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

. It was formerly treated as a separate family, Pyrolaceae.Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards).
Ericaceae
''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website''. Retrieved 2014-12-29. It has also been treated as the tribe Pyroleae within the subfamily

Monotropoideae Monotropoideae, sometimes referred to as monotropes, are a flowering plant subfamily in the family Ericaceae. Members of this subfamily are notable for their mycoheterotrophic and non-photosynthesizing or achlorophyllous characteristics. Descrip ...

. It consists of four genera: ''

Chimaphila ''Chimaphila'' (prince's pine or wintergreen; from Greek: ''cheima'' 'winter' and ''philos'' 'lover', hence 'winter lover') is a genus of five species of small, evergreen, flowering plants native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemispher ...

'' containing 5 species, ''

Pyrola ''Pyrola'' is a genus of evergreen herbaceous plants in the family Ericaceae. Under the old Cronquist system it was placed in its own family Pyrolaceae, but genetic research showed it belonged in the family Ericaceae. The species are commonly ...

'' containing 30 species and ''

Moneses ''Moneses uniflora'', the one-flowered wintergreen (British Isles), single delight, wax-flower, shy maiden, star of Bethlehem (Aleutians), St. Olaf's candlestick (Norway), wood nymph, or frog's reading lamp, is a plant of the family of Ericacea ...

'' and '' Orthilia'' which are

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

. They are

mixotrophic A mixotroph is an organism that can use a mix of different sources of energy and carbon, instead of having a single trophic mode on the continuum from complete autotrophy at one end to heterotrophy at the other. It is estimated that mixotrophs com ...

, gaining nutrition from

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in ...

, but also from

mycorrhizal fungi A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the pla ...

Genera list

References

Asterid subfamilies {{Ericaceae-stub