false Solomon's seal

Photo: Walter Siegmund (talk) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 3 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Ripe red berries edible in moderation, cooked or as jelly — raw berries have a laxative, cathartic effect in quantity. Young shoots are cooked and eaten like asparagus in some regions. ⚠ Also worth knowing: young shoots are easily confused with those of the toxic false hellebore (Veratrum) — check for the alternate, distinctly parallel-veined leaves before cutting anything.

Hardiness

Zone 3–9

Habit

Herb

Edible part

Shoot, Fruit

Ripens

Late summer (ripe red berries)

Mature size

Arching herbaceous perennial 40–90 cm, spreading slowly by rhizome

Light

Shade to partial

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Woodland

Native range

Across North America — British Columbia east to Nova Scotia, south to Georgia, Arizona and northern Mexico; rich moist deciduous woodland and shaded stream banks.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

2–3 yrs

Growth speed

Herbaceous — throws up 60–90 cm of arching stem each spring and dies back in autumn.

Spacing

60 cm (24 in) apart — about 2.8 per m² (2.6 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Alternate, oblong to lance-shaped, 7–15 cm long with prominent parallel veins and a slightly clasping base, arranged in two ranks along a gracefully arching unbranched stem.

Root system

Thick fleshy rhizomes creeping just under the leaf litter, from which the stems emerge each spring; spreads slowly into loose colonies.

Fruit description

Round berries about 6 mm across in a loose terminal cluster, green at first, then mottled and marbled with copper-red, ripening solid ruby-red in late summer. ⚠ Pleasantly sweet but strongly laxative in quantity — a nibble, not a bowlful.

Propagation

Division of the rhizome in autumn or early spring is the reliable route. Seed is slow and doubly dormant, needing a warm period followed by cold stratification, and often takes two springs to appear.

Pollination

Hermaphrodite and insect-pollinated — short- and long-tongued bees, flies and beetles all work the frothy terminal plume. Also spreads vegetatively by rhizome, so a colony persists whether or not seed sets.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.