Rhizomes shallowly set, 1-1.8 cm thick. Stems erect, 5-9(-11) dm; sheathing bract cauline, papery, caducous. Leaves subsessile or short-petiolate, 4-15 × 2-5.5(-7.5) cm; blade elliptic-lanceolate to broadly ovate, glabrous adaxially, minutely hairy or pilose on abaxial veins; prominent veins 3-9. Inflorescences in most leaf axils except distalmost and proximal 2-4; peduncle sharply reflexed, axillary 1-3(-5)-flowered, to 2 cm in fruit. Flowers: perianth yellowish green, tube 10-13(-15) mm, distinct tips 2-3 mm; stamens inserted high in perianth tube; filaments densely warty; pedicel to 1.3 cm in fruit. Berries 6-9 mm. 2n = 20.

Flowering early--late spring. Rich moist wooded slopes and coves; 0--1100 m; N.B., N.S., Ont., Que.; Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Perennial herb with a knotty, creeping rhizome 0.5 - 1 m tall

Stem: upright.

Leaves: alternate, short-stalked or nearly stalkless, 4 - 15 cm long, 2 - 6 cm wide, narrowly elliptic to broadly oval, parallel-veined, hairy on the smaller veins beneath.

Flowers: yellowish green, 10 - 13 mm long, tubular, with six short lobes. Stamens six.

Fruit: a berry, dark blue to black, 6 - 9 mm long.

Inflorescences: are short clusters (racemes) of one to three flowers hanging from the leaf axils.

Similar species: The similar Polygonatum biflorum differs by having hairless leaf undersides.

Flowering: mid-April to late June

Habitat and ecology: Frequent in moist woods and thickets.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Notes: When the leafstalk is broken away from the rhizome, the rhizome will show a distinctive scar that is said to resemble the official seal of King Solomon.

Etymology: Polygonatum comes from the Greek words polys, meaning many, and gonu, meaning knee-joint, in reference to the many joints of the rhizomes. Pubescens means downy.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Frequent in moist, rich woods in the northern two thirds of the state, becoming very rare in the southern part. I have 86 specimens of my own collecting from which I made this study.

Stem slender, 5-9 dm, mostly erect; cauline bract papery, caducous; lvs narrowly elliptic to broadly oval, 4-12 נ1-6 cm, narrowed below to a short petiole, glabrous above, glaucous and hairy on the smaller veins beneath, with 3-9 prominent nerves, peduncles slender, sharply deflexed, 1-2(-4)-fld; pedicels usually shorter than the peduncle; fls 10-13 mm, yellowish-green; 2n=20. Moist woods and thickets; N.S. to se. Man., s. to Md., Ind., and Minn., and in the mts. to n. Ga. May-July. (P. biflorum, misapplied; P. boreale)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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