Eremotropa sciaphila H. Andres

This species was collected from Mount Yufeng in Kunming/Yunnan Province (China) 1916 by Otto Schoch and described by Andres (1953) as Eremotropa sciaphila. Wallace (1987) included this species into Monotropastrum as M. sciaphilum (no mention on this species in the extensive monography of Wallace (1975), and this name was accepted for three decades. However, phylogenetic and morphological studies by Zhao et al. (2018) lead to the resurrection of the name Eremotropa sciaphila H Andres. With respect to morphology Eremotropa differs from Monotropastrum in often being racemose (having more than one flower in the inflorescence, vs. strictly scapose, only one flower on the scape), the sepals being distinct from the petals (vs. similar to each other), a longer style (vs. style of 1-2 mm length) and glabrous filaments and petals (vs. pubescence present).
Shen et al. (2011) rediscovered Eremotropa sciaphila (calling it Monotropastrum sciaphilum) after 91 years at the type locatity in 2007. This site became monitored since 2010 by Zhao et al. (2018), which also discovered a second location at Shilaoye Shan (altitude, 2300m) in Yuanjiang County, approximately 180 km southwest of the type locality. Hence, E. sciaphila is one of the rarest species in Monotropoideae.