Uvularia sessilifolia

Native

Moderate moisture. Forests, clearings.

April to May

Cream to pale straw-yellow

4″ to 12″

This is a 4″ to 12″ tall, erect, herbaceous perennial rising on a single stem from an elongate, slender rhizome. It often forms colonies.

The stems are rounded, forked once above the middle, and have sheathing bracts at the base. They are light green or reddish-green, hairless, are covered with a whitish, waxy coating (glaucous). On young, flowering plants the stem is usually unforked and the upper stem nods under the weight of the leaves and flowers. On mature, fruiting plants the stems are forked once or twice and are reclining. There is usually just a single leaf below the fork of the stem. One branch is sterile and has 4 to 8 leaves, one branch is fertile and has several leaves and 1 to 3 flowers.

The leaves are alternate, untoothed, 1½″ to 2½″ long and ⅔″ to 1¼″ wide, oval to oblong egg-shaped, with a pointed tip and a rounded base. They attach to the stem without a stalk (sessile) but do not wrap around the stem at their base. The upper surface of the leaf is hairless and bright green to bluish-green. They have 3 to 5 prominent, parallel veins. On the underside of the leaf the veins are covered with minute white hairs. On young plants the leaves are soft, drooping, and somewhat rolled. On mature plants the leaves are firm and are held horizontally.

The inflorescence is a single flower at the end of a flowering branch. It may appear to be born in a leaf axil, since the forked stem on which it is born ends abruptly after forking.

The flowers are bell-shaped, ½″ to 1″ long, nodding and slightly fragrant. They are borne on ¼″ to ⅔″ long flower stalks and are subtended with a single bract. There are 6 cream to pale straw-yellow overlapping tepals. The interior surface of the tepals are hairless.

The fruit is a 3-celled, greenish to yellowish-brown, ⅔″ to 1⅛″ long, ⅓″ to ⅔″ wide capsule. The capsule is egg-shaped to pyramid-shaped, with a rounded tip and 3 sharp lobes. The lobes are not beaked. Each cell contains several seeds.

Large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) is a taller plant, 8″ to 20″ tall. The leaves are perfoliate and larger, 2⅓″ to 5⅓″ long and ¾″ to 2″ wide. There are 1 to 3 flowers per stem. The flowers are yellow and larger, 1″ to 2″ long. The seed capsules have well-rounded lobes and are shorter, ⅜″ to ⅔″ long.

Perfoliate Bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata) has perfoliate leaves. It does not occur in Minnesota.