Recent wiki additions--Veratrum, Lachenalia, Nothoscordum
Jane McGary (Sat, 17 Apr 2004 20:00:31 PDT)

Mary Sue wrote,

lily, Veratrum >fimbriatum. I've been admiring the leaves as they emerge
lately on my hikes. They really are >impressive. This plant flowers in late
summer and at that time can be a bit scruffy after all kinds >of insects
have had a chance to eat it and without rain for months everything can be
dusty. Still I >was rather surprised to read that this species was
unattractive in Bulbs of North America. I'm not >sure I'd call it
beautiful, but the flowers are very intricate and certainly interesting.

Writers who remark that Veratrum species are unattractive are generally
referring to the plants in flower. Many species have small, green flowers
that don't appeal to gardeners. However, few serious gardeners fail to be
attracted to the foliage of veratrums, especially if it is not damaged by
slugs and snails.

I grow V. californicum (one of the more attractive in flower) in the
garden, having collected seeds from the roadside nearby and sown it in
situ. It took almost ten years to flower but now flowers every year. The
rootstock is a large bulb, or sort of bulb (I'm not sure just what one
should call it) with heavy feeding roots. Digging a mature plant is quite a
project. The bulb makes offsets, eventually producing a large colony in
moist soil. The leaves are beautiful in spring, and they seem to develop a
resistance to slug predation over the years, so even without bait they
eventually look good. They do, however, wither by midsummer.

Veratrums are a feature of alpine meadows all around the Northern
Hemisphere, where they are striking as they are often the largest plants in
the community. Their common name is "false hellebore," which I can't
understand as they don't resemble hellebores in any respect except in
having green flowers. They are quite poisonous. Alaskan native people used
them as a wound dressing; they regarded the plants as so powerful that they
left a small gift in the hole after digging a plant to propitiate the
plant's spirit.

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA