LILY FAMILY LILIACEAE 
COLICROOT. STAR GRASS 
Aletris farinosa L. 
The Colicroot is a shy inhabitant of out of the way places, 
and is found in dry, more often in wet, but only in sandy soil. 
It occurs locally from Maine to Minnesota and south to Florida 
and Arkansas. 
This is a perennial with numerous tough 
fibrous roots. The foliage leaves are basal but 
the flowering shoot, which grows 1-3 feet high, 
bears several small bractlike leaves. The whole 
plant is a pale yellowish green, and is very 
bitter. 
The many flowers, borne in an erect spicate 
raceme 4-12 inches long, 
bloom in July and August. 
The white cylindrical peri- 
anth is 6-lobed at the top, 
with the 6 stamens attached 
to the tube just below the 
lobes. Thickly set points 
roughen and give a mealy 
appearance to the outside 
of the perianth, from which 
comes the generic name 
meaning a slave who grinds 
corn. The pistil consists of 
a 3-celled ovary, an awl- 
shaped style and 3 stigmas. The fruit is a capsule containing 
numerous seeds. 
The plant of which Colicroot appears almost as a smaller edition 
is the Spanish Bayonet, Yucca filamentosa L., a very striking plant 
of the southeastern United States which naturally or by artificial 
means has become well established in many parts of the Ozark 
uplift. The great basal cluster of swordlike leaves remains green 
throughout the winter, and in summer if the plant is old enough 
it sends up a stout scape 2-10 feet high and bearing a great panicle 
of white flowers. The flowers are 114-2% inches long, ovate and 
6-divided, with 6 stamens shorter than the perianth. It requires the 
Pronuba moth to pollinate and fertilize it, and pays for the work by 
harboring in its 3-celled capsule along with the many seeds, the egg 
of the moth. 
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