Great Solomon's Seal, Polygonatum canaliculatum, Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Great Solomon's Seal & Solomon's Seal	Polygonatum biflorum (Walter) Elliott var. commutatum & P. biflorum (Walter) Elliot var biflorum	Lily	Woodland & Upland	Late Spring to Early Summer flowering
Other names and notes	Solomon's Seals are plants with arching un-branched stems with flowers and eventually fruit hanging beneath the leaves. The "Great (or Smooth) Solomon's Seal" in mature plants can have stems up to 6 feet long. The greenish-white 6-part tubular shaped flowers are in stalked clusters hanging downward along the stem. They can range from 2 to 10 depending on the age of the plant. The fruit becomes a 1/4" dark blue to black berry which birds love. The alternate leaves are stalkless and usually clasping the stem. The Garden has two varieties listed on the plant census. Most references will group them together and describe as above. Squirrels will dig out the newly planted root-stock, so protect it.


Above: Note the arching stems and the distinctive stalked flower clusters.	Above: Two week after the photo at the left, the fruit (1/4" berry) is forming.
Below: Developing berries in early August. Note also the stalkless leaf attachment.	Below: Fully ripened berries in late September.

Notes: This plant is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on May 31, 1907. Martha Crone listed the plant on her 1951 Garden census as P. canaliculatum, which now is recognized as Polygonatum biflorum (Walter) Elliott var. commutatum. Native to Minnesota and found mostly in the southern half.

Eloise Butler wrote: "Why called Solomon’s seal, do you ask? Burrowing in the earth will disclose a fleshy underground stem scarred at interval with rounded, shallow pits that have been likened to a seals - a seal for each annual aerial stalk. “Venerable is Solomon” you will exclaim, if you attempt to trace their number." Published June 4, 1911, Sunday Minneapolis Tribune

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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