Corn-lily

Clintonia borealis is a colonial perennial herb of the Liliaceae family arising from a slender white rhizome that spreads laterally to form small patches in cool forest understorey. The plant is essentially stemless above ground, producing a tuft of two to five (rarely six) basal leaves and a single naked flowering scape 15-40 cm tall. Leaves are oblong-elliptic to broadly oblanceolate, 12-30 cm long and 4-10 cm wide, glossy bright green with a smooth somewhat fleshy texture, parallel-veined, with an abruptly pointed tip, an entire ciliate margin and a sheathing base. The terminal inflorescence is a loose umbel-like cluster of three to eight (occasionally solitary) nodding flowers on slender finely pubescent pedicels 2-5 cm long. Each flower is bell-shaped, with six greenish-yellow, narrowly oblong tepals 12-18 mm long, six exserted stamens with yellow anthers and a single style. The fruit is a striking glossy porcelain-blue (rarely white) globose berry 6-10 mm in diameter, persisting after the leaves yellow, containing several pale flattened seeds. Native to cool coniferous and mixed forests of eastern Canada, the northeastern United States and the southern Appalachians, often in moss-rich shaded sites.