234 FLOWERS OF THE ROADSIDES AND HEDGES 
Black Bryony is a perennial plant, propagated by the root, which is 
fleshy and black. The plant is a climber. It flowers from May to June. 
The stamens open inwards. The stigmas are bilobed and bent 
backwards. Pollination by insects is a necessary precursor to fertiliza- 
BLACK BRYONY (Zamus communis, L.) 
tion in this plant. The male flowers are in lax racemes, and solitary 
or branched; the female flowers are in short racemes, which are re- 
curved, and have few flowers. In the allied Dzoscorea only rudimentary 
flowers are produced. 
The fruit is a berry, which is red when ripe, and attractive to birds, 
but usually dispersed by falling to the ground around the parent plant. 
