PEPPER FAMILY 
PIPERACEAE 
LIZARD’S TAIL 
Saururus cernuus L. 
The Lizard’s Tail is related to the plant which gives us 
black pepper. It is the only species of the genus and the 
only member of the Pepper family native to Illinois; most of 
the others are tropical. 
The Lizard’s Tail 
grows in swamps and 
shallow water through- 
out most of eastern 
United States, and 
blooms from June to 
August. Its slender un- 
derground stems lives 
over winter and propa- 
gates the plant by 
branching and sending 
up new shoots. A colony 
thus established may 
occupy a considerable 
area and persist for many years. 
The slender and erect stem, 2-5 
feet high, is sparingly branched and 
when young slightly hairy, later 
becoming smooth. The dark green, 
ovate leaves are 3-6 inches long, 
deeply heart shaped at the base, 
entire and palmately 5-9-ribbed. 
There are several 4-6-inch and very dense spikes of fragrant 
flowers. The tips of the spikes, on whose account the plant 
name is derived, droop as the flowers mature. Neither calyx nor 
corolla is present but the stamens and pistil are white and fairly 
conspicuous. Stamens are 6-8 and the pistil is composed of 3 or 
4 parts, each containing 1 seed. The fleshy fruit is one-eighth 
inch in diameter and becomes much wrinkled when dry. 
Men call me Birch Tree, yet I know 
In other days it was not So. 
I am a Dryad slim and white 
Who danced too long one summer night, 
And the Dawn found and prisoned me! 
The Spirit of the Birch—ARTHUR KETCHUM 
72 
