FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL

FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL...

...GROWING AS A GROUND COVER IN A LOCAL WOODS

Wednesday, 8:15 AM.  53 degrees F at the ferry dock, 46 on the back porch.  Wind variable, calm with very light gusts.  The sky is cloudless, the humidity 73%,  The barometer has begun to fall, and now is at 30.06".  It is a gorgeous, if cool, day.
   False Solomon's seal, Smilacina racemosa, in the Lily Family, is a widespread plant native to every state in the US except Hawaii.  Its creamy white flowers are, as the species name implies, borne in terminal racemes, and are followed by edible berries that turn from a spotted orange to bright red when fully ripe.  The berries have a rather pleasant taste and I think would make good preserves (seems to me I had some a few years back), and for the first time yesterday morning I found plants in great enough number in a large colony that it would be feasible to do so (I have eaten them with no ill effect, but don't you  do so without further investigation).  En mass they are every bit as beautiful and effective as a woods full of trilliums.
   The true Solomon's seals,  several species in the genus Polygonatum,  have flowers and berries in pairs along the stem at each leaf node.
   I walk up Old Military Road several mornings each week, and this is the first time I actually saw the large colony (at least a quarter of an acre) of false Solomon's seal.   It is amazing the things we don't see in our own back yard, and how rich our every day environment really is, if we only open our eyes.