More Wild Lilies

The Wild Spikenard also goes by the names of False Solomon's Seal, and Solomon's Zig-zag. Its scientific name is Smilacina racemosa. This plant has white or greenish colored, small, slightly fragrant, densely packed flowers. It grows one to three feet tall, and has a simple, slightly angled stem which tends to be leafy and sometimes has a little hair on the upper parts. The leaves of this lily are lance-shaped and grow from three to six inches long. They have a fine hairy growth on the under side.

This wild flower also sports batches of aromatic, round berries which tend to be pale red speckled in color. It likes to grow in moist woods, thickets, or hillsides and the flowers bloom from May to July. This one likes the southern regions of the United States, from Georgia over to Arizona.

The False Solomon's Seal tends to grow close to true Solomon's Seal, so novice gardeners can confuse the two. But the feathery plume of greenish-white blossoms that crowns the false Solomon's Seal's somewhat zig-zagged stem is very different from the small, greenish, bell-shaped flowers, usually nodding in pairs along the stem, under the leaves, from the axils of the true Solomon's Seal. Later in summer, when hungry birds wander through the woods with increased families, the Wild Spikenard offers them branching clusters of pale red speckled berries, whereas the true Solomon's Seal plant gives them blue-black fruit to feast on.

More about "True" Solomon's Seal, also known as Hairy, or Twin-flowered Solomon's Seal. The scientific name for this wild flower is Polygonatum biflorum. As noted above, this plant produces whitish or yellowish green tubular bell-shaped flowers. It can put out up to four flowers at once, but usually tends to produce two at a time - thus the name "Twin-Flowered" - per penduncle. The twin-flowered solomon's seal has simple, slender, leafy stems and grows from eight inches to three feet tall. The leaves can be oval, pointed or lance-shaped and grow from two to four inches long. These have a soft, hairy texture along the veins on the underside of the leaf. It too produces berries, and these are a blue-black color. The plant tends to wilt after producing the berries.

This wild flower prefers to grow in the woods or thickets, and on shady banks. It flowers from April to June and does well in areas such as Florida and Michigan.

The Early or Dwarf Wake-Robin, Trillium nivale, produces solidtary pure white flowers about one inch in length. It grows just two to six inches high and produces a whorl of three oblong or oval petals just below the flower.

This wild flower also sports a reddish berry which contrasts nicely with the white flower. It likes to grow in rich, moist woods and thickets, and flowers from March to May. Good growing areas include Pennsylvania, westward to Minnesota and Iowa, and south to Kentucky.

Only this delicate little flower, as white as the snow it sometimes must push through to reach the sunshine melting the last drifts in the leafless woods, can be said to wake the robins into song; a full chorus of feathered love-makers greets the appearance of the more widely distributed, and therefore better known, species.

All the trilliums, as their name implies, have easily recognizable traits: Three sepals, three petals, twice three stamens, three styles, a three-celled ovary, the flower growing out from a whorl of three leaves. This makes identifying them fairly easy, even for the novice gardener.

One of the most chastely beautiful of our native wild flowers - so lovely that many shady nooks in English rock-gardens and ferneries contain imported clumps of the vigorous plant - is the Large-flowered Wake-Robin, or White Wood Lily (T. grandiflorum). Under favorable conditions the waxy, thin, white, or occasionally pink, strongly veined petals may exceed two inches, though ones with larger flowers have been seen. The broad leaves taper to a point, and lacking petioles, are seated in the usual whorl of three. This white wood lily can grow to a foot and a half tall.

Certainly the commonest trillium in the East, although it thrives as far westward as Ontario and Missouri, and south to Georgia, is the Nodding Wake-Robin (T. cernuum), whose white or pinkish flower droops from its peduncle until it is all but hidden under the whorl of broadly rhombic, tapering leaves. The wavy margined petals, about half an inch long or over - curve backward at maturity. You'll find this plant in bloom from April to June, depending on which climate it's planted.