FALSE SPIKENARD fSolomon's Plume) 



Smilacina tacemosa ( L. ) Desf. 



May Like a creamy white plume, the flowers of the false spikenard 



Woods emit a delicate scent in the spring woods. The tall spike bends 

 in an arc beneath the oaks. False spikenard is one of the mid- 

 spring flowers of Illinois, one which often carries its bloom well past 

 mid-May when the warblers are at their height of abundance and summer 

 is just over the horizon. 



False spikenard grows with a degree of elegance not found in all 

 plants; it is in its character to hold its glossy, ribbed, bright green leaves 

 sharj^ly at angles, alternately on the stem, with the single plume of 

 flowers at the top of the stem. It neither branches nor varies from this 

 plan. Usually the creeping rootstocks send up many plants so that false 

 spikenard, like the false Solomon's seal, gi'ows well accompanied by its 

 own kind. 



May. The leaves have come on the oaks and shagbarks and the shade 

 grows deeper in the woods. The last of the morels spring up in the moist 

 sandy soil ; a day or two of heat and they are finished. The redbuds are 

 out of bloom; so are the Avild crabs and plums; the breath of June is on 

 the land and the time of small, concise woods flowers is quickly passing. 



But beneath the arching stems of the false spikenard the Kentucky 

 warbler may have built a nest of gTass wreathed around in a cup, and 

 there are five russet-speckled Qgg^. ^^^^en at last the stamen-filled flower 

 head of the spikenard falls away and lets petals and stamens scatter into 

 the nest and on the ground, summer at last is here and the spikenard 

 fruits are developing. By late summer and early autumn the little berries 

 are translucent red or speckled white and red. By Octolier they are clear 

 caiTnine fruits which the roljins eat, and which, ])erhaps, the last 

 migrating Kentucky warbler pauses a moment to pluck and eat before 

 going on to the south. 



73 



