Uvularia sessilifolia

Sessile bellwort
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Colchicaceae
Genus: Uvularia
Species:
U. sessilifolia
Binomial name
Uvularia sessilifolia
Synonyms[1]
  • Oakesia sessilifolia (L.) S.Watson
  • Oakesiella sessilifolia (L.) Small

Uvularia sessilifolia, the sessile bellwort, sessileleaf bellwort, little merrybells[2] or wild oats, is a species of bellwort native to eastern and central North America. It grows in woodlands with wet or dry soils.

The strap-like leaves are sessile on the stem. The flowers are yellow, narrowly bell-shaped, and creamy yellow, blooming in spring. The leaves have no hairs on the margin and are somewhat narrow, distinguishing this plant from the similar Streptopus. They spread asexually by means of long under ground stolons with most plants in a clonal colony not flowering.[3] Flowering plants often do not set seed, but when plants form seeds they are in three angled fruits.

The native range extends from the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Nova Scotia, west to Texas, The Dakotas and Manitoba .[1][4][5]

Uvularia sessilifolia 'Blizzard' is a cultivated form with misty variegated foliage.[6]

  1. ^ a b "Uvularia sessilifolia". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  2. ^ Clarence Birdseye; Eleanor Gannett Birdseye (1972). Growing Woodland Plants. Courier Corporation. pp. 62–. ISBN 978-0-486-20661-5.
  3. ^ Kazuhiko Hayashi; Seiji Yoshida; Hidetoshi Kato, Frederick H. Utech; Dennis F. Whigham; Shoichi Kawanoi (1998). "Molecular Systematics of the Genus Uvularia and Selected Liliales Based upon mat K and rbc L Gene Sequence Data". Plant Species Biology. 13 (2–3): 129–146. doi:10.1111/j.1442-1984.1998.tb00254.x.
  4. ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "​Uvularia sessilifolia​". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team.
  5. ^ "Uvularia sessilifolia". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  6. ^ Laurence C. Hatch. Hatch's Perennials 2017-18: Genera U to Z. TCR Press. pp. 1–. GGKEY:DB6W16X9RZZ.