| Description | Blue Bead Lily (Clintonia borealis) is a eastern North America native. Has yellow nodding flowers followed by vivid blue berries. Found in shaded moist sites. |
|---|---|
| Plant Type | Wild Flowers, Site author's observations |
| Hardiness Zone | 4 |
| Sunlight | shade |
| Moisture | average, moist |
| Soil & Site | moist, moist woods |
| Flowers | 3-6 yellowish-green, drooping, bell-like flowers, with 6 tepals (petal like structures), form an umbel, borne on a scape |
| Fruit | vivid bright blue, spherical berries on top of a long stalk, hence the common name "Bead Lily" |
| Leaves | 3-5 basal, glossy green, thick, oblong |
| Stems | rhizomes |
| Dimensions | can slowly spread to form colonies |
| Propagation | dividing underground runners in fall or early spring, seed planted immediately after ripening in the fall, could take 2 years to germinate, warm cold stratification may work, seeds must be kept moist (Botany CA (//botanicallyinclined.org/seeds-shop) |
| Native Site | eastern north America |
| Misc Facts | Named for the former governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828. (syn Dracaena borealis) (aka: Bluebead, Yellow Bluebead-lily, Clintonia, Blue-bead Lily, Corn Lily |
| Author's Notes | I like when you come across an established patch of this plant blooming and than followed by the vivid blue berries. When not in bloom there will be a ground cover of glossy basal leaves. The first set of pictures that I posted were taken a few hundred feet from Lake Superior. The plants where growing in the sand and needle liter from the "human planted" old Red Pines wind break. |
| Notes & Reference | #100-Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest (Merel Black and Emmet Judziewicz), #193-Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, #191-Minnesota Wild Flowers (www.minnesotawildflowers.info) |
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