Mai Dong

Ophiopogon japonicus is a tufted, evergreen herbaceous perennial in the Asparagaceae, native to East Asia including China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, where it grows in moist, shaded forest understories, on shaded slopes and along stream banks. Plants form dense, grass-like clumps 15-30 cm tall, spreading slowly by short, stoloniferous rhizomes that produce numerous slender white roots, some of which swell at intervals into small fusiform tubers. The dark green, narrowly linear, leathery basal leaves are 10-50 cm long and 2-5 mm wide, arching gracefully from the base. In summer the species sends up short, slightly flattened scapes bearing loose racemes of small, nodding, bell-shaped flowers with six pale lilac to whitish tepals about 5 mm long. The fruits are berry-like, pea-sized, bright cobalt-blue structures with a glossy surface. It is widely cultivated as a low evergreen groundcover and ornamental edging plant.