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Maianthemum stellatum - (image 1 of 7)

Taxonomy

Family: Liliaceae

Habitat

Moist, especially sandy woods, shores and prairies. Calcareous springy sites. Especially common in sandy Black Oak savanna and on sloping dunes facing Lake Michigan.

Associates

 Distribution

Most of the U.S. except states bordering the Atlantic from NC to TX. Also all but extreme northern Canada.

Morphology

Herbaceous perennial to 25" high, finely hairy or glabrous. Leaves lanceolate or lance-oblong, to 6" wide and 2" wide, acute, ascending, usually folded, sessile and somewhat clasping, finely hairy beneath. Flowers few to several in a subsessile or short-peduncled terminal raceme; perianth segments more than 3 mm long, longer than the stamens, inflorescence racemose, flowers and fruits with long pedicels. Fruit to 0.4" in diameter, green with purple stripes, becoming uniformly red at maturity.

Notes

Flowers mid April to mid June

Wetland indicator: Facultative

Formerly known as Smilacina stellata (L.) Desf.

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
 

Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.

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