Taxonomy
Family: Liliaceae
Synonymous with Disporum lanuginosum (Michx.) G. Nicholson and Streptopus lanuginosus Michx.
Habitat
Rich woods.
Associates
Distribution
NY to southern Ontario, south to GA and AL, mainly in mountains.
Morphology
Herbaceous, rhizomatous perennial; stem 40-90 cm, dichotomously forked above, hairy when young; leaves sessile, thin, ovate or lance-ovate, 5-12 cm long and 2-5 cm wide, acuminate, lanulose beneath especially along the veins; flowers in subsessile clusters or 1-3 terminating the branches; pedicels 1.3-3 cm; tepals yellow-green, unspotted, narrowly lanceolate, 15-25 mm long and 2.5-4 mm wide; stamens 1/2 to 2/3 as long as the perianth, the filaments 6-10 mm; ovary narrowly ellipsoid, glabrous or slightly hairy; ovules pendulous, 2 per locule; stigma trifid; fruit a red, glabrous, few-seeded berry.
Notes
Flowers May to early June
Wetland indicator: NA
The flowers of this species are rather inconspicuous because they are only slightly lighter in color than the foliage and mostly obscured by it from above.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Michael Hough © 2018 |