05.19.20 True or False?

 

This is Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum biflorum. Its flowers dangle delicately like tiny greenish-white ornaments from its single stem. [If you are familiar with asparagus in your vegetable garden, you will notice a similarity between their flowers and these. Apparently the plants are actually in the same family.] Interestingly, there is a plant, very similar in form, blooming at the same time in our area, but having a quite different flower. Many know this flower as False Solomon’s Seal, but I prefer the more descriptive Solomon’s Plume, Maianthemum racemosa. I found a dusty patch growing along the gravel road to our home, the blooms nodding obediently to the passing traffic.

A closer look at the tiny flowers of Solomon’s Seal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solomon’s Plume (covered with road dust…).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The very different flowers of Solomon’s Plume, or False Solomon’s Seal.