''Veratrum hybridum'' is a species of flowering plant in the Melanthiaceae known by the common names slender bunchflower and crisped bunchflower.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, Veratrum hybridum (Walter) J.H.Zimmerman ex Zomlefer
/ref>''Veratrum latifolium''.
USDA Plants Profile. Many publications use the synonyms ''Melanthium latifolium'' and ''Veratrum latifolium'',Biota of North America Program 2013 distribution map, ''Veratrum latifolium''
/ref> but the ''"hybridum''" epithet is 9 years older than the "latifolium," so ''Veratrum hybridum'' is now the accepted name. It is native to the eastern United States, particularly in the Appalachian Mountains.Carey, Jennifer, H. 1994
''Melanthium latifolium''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). This perennial herb grows from a

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

with a network of

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. The stem grows up to 1.6 meters tall. The lance-shaped leaves reach up to 55 centimeters long by 7.2 centimeters wide. The inflorescence is a

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 ...

branching into secondary, and sometimes tertiary, racemes. Each flower has woolly green or purplish

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s and six white or yellowish tepals. The fruit is a capsule up to 2 centimeters long containing winged seeds.''Melanthium latifolium''.
Flora of North America. Though the plant produces flowers and seeds, flowering occurs irregularly and most reproduction may be

vegetative Vegetative describes vegetation. Vegetative may also refer to: *Vegetative reproduction Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in ...

, when the plant sprouts from its rhizome. This plant occurs in

deciduous forests 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, afte ...

. It occurs in moist, shady habitat such as

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

s. It sometimes grows alongside Appalachian bunchflower (''Melanthium parviflorum''), but generally at lower elevations. At a site in the Shenandoah National Forest it was noted to grow with oak and

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...

. Associated plants include

white snakeroot White snakeroot is a common name for several flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, and may refer to: * '' Ageratina altissima'', native to eastern North America (older name: ''Eupatorium rugosum'') * '' Ayapana triplinervis'', nati ...

(''Ageratina altissima''), flypoison (''Amianthium muscitoxicum''), wild yam (''Dioscorea villosa''), white wood aster (''Eurybia divaricata''), bigleaf aster (''E. macrophylla''), Allegheny hawkweed (''Hieracium paniculatum''), widowsfrill (''Silene stellata''), Atlantic goldenrod (''Solidago arguta''), mountain decumbent goldenrod (''S. caesia'' var. ''curtisii''), hairy goldenrod (''S. hispida''), meadow zizia (''Zizia aptera''), and eastern hayscented fern (''Dennstaedtia punctilobula'').

References

External links

The Nature Conservancy
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6811586 Melanthiaceae Flora of the Eastern United States Plants described in 1788