Clasp Twisted Stalk

Several poorly defined races described by N. C. Fassett (1935) as varieties based chiefly on minute difference in leaf-margin serration are not here recognized.

Plants from thick rhizomes. Stems freely branched, stout, 5–12 dm, often with reddish hairs basally, nodes not fringed. Leaves 5–15 × 2.5–6 cm; blade ovate-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, base cordate-clasping, apex acuminate; peduncle: junction with pedicel abrupt, with glands indicating transition, entire structure 2–5 cm, glands short-stalked. Flowers 1–2 per axil; perianth campanulate; tepals spreading, recurved at tips, white to greenish yellow, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 9–15 mm; stamens unequal, outer shorter, 0.8–1 mm, inner 2–3 mm; anthers lanceolate, 3–3.5 mm, apex 1-pointed; style stout, 4–5 mm; stigma fused from base to tip, unlobed; combined peduncles and pedicels recurved, 2–5 cm, short-stalked glands indicating transition; pedicel sharply geniculate, glabrous. Berries whitish green maturing to yellowish orange or red, ellipsoid, 10–12 mm. Seeds 2.5–3 mm. 2n = 16, 32.

Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Colo., Conn., Idaho, Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., Oreg., Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Eurasia.

Flowering late spring--mid summer.

Rich moist coniferous and deciduous woods; 0--2800m.

Uvularia amplexifolia Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 304. 1753; Streptopus amplexifolius subsp. americanus (Schultes) Á. Löve & D. Löve; S. amplexifolius var. americanus Schultes; S. amplexifolius var. chalazatus Fassett; S. amplexifolius var. denticulatus Fassett; S. amplexifolius var. grandiflorus Fassett; S. fassettii Á. Löve & D. Löve; Tortipes amplexifolius (Linnaeus) Small