''Maianthemum canadense'' (Canadian may-lily, Canada mayflower, false lily-of-the-valley, Canadian lily-of-the-valley, wild lily-of-the-valley,, p.105 two-leaved Solomon's seal) is an understory perennial

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

, native to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the north-eastern United States, from

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

east to

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, into

St. Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (french: link=no, Collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon ), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in t ...

. It can be found growing in both

coniferous Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant ...

and

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

forests. The plant appears in two forms, either as a single leaf rising from the ground with no fruiting structures or as a flowering/fruiting stem with 2-3 leaves. Flowering shoots have clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers held above the leaves.

Description

Plants grow to tall, arising from branching

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s that have roots only at the nodes. Plants may be one-leaved and without fruiting structures (sterile). Fertile, flowering shoots have 2–3 leaves.

Leaves

Leaf blades are long by wide with a pointed tip. Lowest leaves are usually egg-shaped with two lobes at the base and a narrow space (sinus) between the lobes. Upper leaves are usually heart-shaped and set on a short 1–7 mm long petiole.

Flowering clusters

Clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers are set in a complex

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

- an unbranched flowering cluster that has 1-3 (usually 2) stalked flowers per node, set at roughly equal distances along a central axis. Lowest flowers open first. Flowers stalks (

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

s) are 3–7 mm long and thin (0.2-0.5 mm wide).

Flowers and fruits

The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are produced from spring to mid summer. They have 4 conspicuous, white, 1.5–2 mm long

tepal A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...

s. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

containing 1–2 round

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s. The berries are 4–6 mm across, mottled red in early summer and turning deep red by mid summer. Seed is produced infrequently and most plants in a location are vegetative

clones Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massive presence of which may indicate a pathologi ...

, the plants spreading by their shallow, trailing, white rhizomes.

Distribution

Found in Canada from SE Yukon, southern Northwest Territories, into eastern B.C. and east to Newfoundland and Labrador, and into St. Pierre and Miquelon. Also found in northern United States from the Dakotas east, south along the Appalachian Mountains and outliers in Colorado, Wyoming Nebraska and Kansas.

Habitat and ecology

Primarily a boreal forest understory species, but also found at low elevation sites in the Rocky Mountains, to 1800 m. It is associated with moist woods but is also found in sandy pine woods in the north and can persist in clearings.

Similar species

Although most ''Maianthemum'' have flower parts in sets of 3, ''M. canadense'' plants have flowers with four tepals and four stamens, as in the very closely related '' Maianthemum bifolium'' and ''

Maianthemum dilatatum ''Maianthemum dilatatum'' (snakeberry, two-leaved Solomon's seal or false lily of the valley) is a common rhizomatous perennial flowering plant that is native to western North America from northern California to the Aleutian islands, and Asia acr ...

''. The range of these species do not overlap. ''Maianthemum bifolium'' is found in temperate

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

and ''Maianthemum dilatatum'' is essentially a coastal species found from Alaska south to NW California as well as Mongolia to Japan. ''

Maianthemum trifolium ''Maianthemum trifolium'' (Three-leaf Solomon's-seal, three-leaf Solomon's-plume, threeleaf false lily of the valley, smilacine trifoliée) is a species of flowering plant that is associated with extremely wet environments and is native to Canada ...

'' is also a small herb and has a distribution similar to ''M. canadense'', but the flower parts are in sets of 3s, the leaf bases are tapered, not heart-shaped and ''M. trifolium'' is found in wet habitat such as bogs.

Subspecies

No subspecies are currently recognized, although in the western half of the range plants with hairs and consistently larger leaves have been treated as var. ''interius''.

Gallery

File:Flowers_Maianthemum_canadense.jpg, Flowers File:Maianthemum canadense plant.jpg, flowering File:Leaves_Maianthemum_canadense.jpg, Leaves File:Maianthemum canadense sterile plants.jpg, single leaves of sterile plants File:Flower_buds_Maianthemum_canadense.jpg, In bud File:Flower_buds_close_up_Maianthemum_canadense.jpg, Complex raceme

References

Bibliography

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3303394 canadense Flora of Subarctic America Flora of Canada Flora of the Northwestern United States Flora of the North-Central United States Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Plants described in 1807 Taxa named by René Louiche Desfontaines Flora without expected TNC conservation status