2019 March of the Month

BWSR Featured Plant Name: Large-flowered bellwort ( grandiflora) Plant Family: (Autumn-crocus) Large-flowered A perennial bellwort is named for its nodding, bell- native to deciduous forests, shaped flowers. Its large-flowered bellwort blooms perfoliate leaves are pierced by the stem. in spring Rounded, three- about the Plant Stats lobed capsules same time contain seeds STATEWIDE that attract . as trillium Courtesy Photos WETLAND and wild INDICATOR geranium. Its STATUS: None

nodding, bell- PRIMARY like flowers, USES: Pollinator larger benefits, woodland than those plantings and of other shade gardens Uvularia , give this plant its common name. Seeds of large- flowered bellwort bear small food bodies that attract ants, which bring the seeds back to their nests, remove the food bodies and leave the seeds to germinate. This method of dispersal moves seeds away from the parent plant and to a site that may provide better protection from predators.

Identification Planting Recommendations Stems of large-flowered bellwort Leaves are medium green above Large-flowered and plantings under are smooth and slightly blue-green. and light green below with parallel bellwort grows best shade trees. Seeds, Above the midpoint, mature stems veins. Flowers bloom from April in dappled shade bare-root stock often branch into two or three into June, producing yellow, slightly and moist, humus- and potted parts, each nodding at the end. twisted petals and sepals growing rich soils. It is a good are available at choice for woodland some native plant Oblong or elliptical leaves grow up 1 to 2 inches long. The plant gardens or margins nurseries. to 6 inches long and 2 inches wide, produces rounded, three-lobed their bases pierced by the stems. seed capsules.

www.bwsr.state.mn.us 1 Uses Range Large-flowered pollinator gardening. Large-flowered from development bellwort offers nectar Unlike some other bellwort is as well as and pollen to several spring-blooming plants found in moist displacement by insects, including of the deciduous deciduous forests non-native plants , sweat forest floor, large- of the Eastern such as buckthorn bees and mining flowered bellwort United States and garlic mustard. bees. The plant also is not ephemeral. and Canada. This Removing invasive has a place in shade Although it blooms forest floor species species can gardens, especially only in spring, its is vulnerable to restore bellwort, where growers are leaves and stems deer browsing. It’s an indicator of an Range map map source: is from USDA USDA NRCS Plants Database interested in native persist through also susceptible intact forest floor NRCS Plants Database. plant cultivation and summer. to loss of habitat community.

Similar Species Sessile-leaf bellwort () is a smaller plant smooth Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum) is similar to with leaves that are not pierced by its stems. Flowers are bellwort, but its leaves are not perfoliate and its flowers are a half-inch to 1 inch long, and pale yellow. Early growth of produced along the stem in the leaf axils.

From left: Side-by-side examples illustrate the differences between large-flowered bellwort, sessile-leaved bellwort( Photo Credit: Katy Chayka, Minnesota Wildflowers) and smooth Solomon’s seal. The photo of smooth Solomon’s seal was taken at the same time as large-flowered bellwort. It shows flower buds just emerging from the leaf axils.

References Illinois Wildflowers: http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/lf_bellwort.htm Minnesota Wildflowers: https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/large-flowered-bellwort Pollinators of Native Plants, by Heather Holm. Pollination Press LLC, Minnetonka, Minnesota. 2014.

Developed by Susan Nelson

www.bwsr.state.mn.us 2