Perfoliate bellwort

Rhizomes short, ca. 1 cm, bearing numerous, clustered, fleshy roots and 1–2 slender, elongate, white stolons to 1.5 dm. Stems 1–several, simple or 1-branched, rounded, 1.5–5 dm, glaucous, bearing (2–)3–4 leaves below lowest branch. Leaf blades perfoliate, ovate to ovate-oblong, 4–20 (–12.5) × 1.5–4(–6) cm, glaucous and smooth abaxially, margins smooth, apex acute to short-acuminate. Flowers 1 per stem; peduncles 1–2 cm, bearing 1 perfoliate bract; tepals straw-yellow, (15–)20–35 × 3–5 mm, orange-papillose adaxially, apex acute; stamens 10–15 mm; anthers 6–10 mm; connectives 1 mm; ovary sessile, obovoid; style 8–10 mm; stigma lobes 3–5 mm. Capsules obovoid-truncate, 3-lobed, 0.7–1.3 × 1–1.6 cm, 2 attenuate beaks per lobe. Seeds 2.5–4.5 mm; arils membranaceous. 2n = 14.

Flowering spring--early summer. Deciduous woods and upland thickets, acid to neutral soils; 0--1000 m; Ont.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Miss., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va.

Detailed life-history studies of Uvularia perfoliata (D. F. Whigham 1974; D. K. Wijesinghe and D. F. Whigham 1997, 2001; H. Kudoh et al. 1999) have established the genetic basis of its clonal structure.