keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

504 CONVALLARIACEAE/OPHIOPOGON
Maianthemum racemosum (L.) Link, (with a raceme type inflorescence), LARGE FALSE SOLOMON’S-
SEAL, FALSE SPIKENARD, SOLOMON’S-PLUME. Herb with thick (8–14 mm wide), knotty, creeping
rhizomes; stems arching, unbranched, to ca. 1(–1.2) m long; leaves 5–13 per stem, in 2 ranks,
short petiolate, usually 7–18 cm long, 3–8 cm wide; inflorescence a panicle of ca. 50–250 small
flowers; pedicels 0.5–1 mm long; flowers with 6 distinct tepals; tepals 0.5–1 mm long, white to
yellowish white, inconspicuous; fruit a globose berry 4–6 mm in diam., when immature greenish
or yellowish white with copper to reddish-brown speckles, maturing to translucent ruby
red; seeds usually 1–2(–4). Deciduous woods; included based on mapped location in extreme ne
part of East TX by LaFrankie (2002)—but without county specified (possibly Bowie Co.); we have
seen no East TX specimens and only tentatively consider this species to be a member of the
East TX flora; also Trans-Pecos; nearly throughout Canada and the U.S. Mid-spring. [Convallaria
racemosa L., Smilacina racemosa (L.) Desf.] The species is sometimes cultivated (LaFrankie
2002). This taxon is apparently apomictic—seeds are produced without fertilization (LaFrankie
1986b; Yatskievych 1999). If present in East TX, the species is extremely rare and of conservation
concern. �
OPHIOPOGON Ker Gawl.
LILY-TURF, MONDO-GRASS, SNAKE-BEARD, JAPANESE-HYACINTH
AA genus of ca. 20–54 species (Mabberley 1997; Conran & Tamura 1998) native from
Indomalesia to the Himalayas and Japan. Some are cultivated as evergreen turf-formers. Liriope
muscari (Decne.) L.H. Bailey, (BIG BLUE LILY-TURF; leaves 8–20 mm wide, usually exceeded by the
scape; flowers dark violet to white) and L. spicata Lour. (CREEPING LILY-TURF; leaves 5 mm or less
wide, longer than the scape; flowers pale violet to white) resemble Ophiopogon species and are
cultivated, persist, and spread vegetatively in flower beds in East TX. They can be distinguished
from Ophiopogon by having filaments about as long as the anthers and the tepals free from the
ovary. (Greek: ophis, a snake, and pogon, beard)
REFERENCE: Walters et al. 1986.
Ophiopogon jaburan (Siebold) Lodd., (an oriental vernacular name), JABURAN LILY-TURF, WHITE
LILY-TURF, GIANT LILY-TURF, SNAKE-BEARD. Scapose, tufted, evergreen, perennial herb; roots not tuberous;
leaves linear, 10–15 mm wide, with 9–13 veins; inflorescence a terminal raceme; scape
30–60 cm long, shorter than to equaling the leaves in length; pedicels 10–15 mm long; flowers
nodding, with 6 distinct tepals; tepals white or pale purple, 7–8 mm long, adnate in their lower
portions to the ovary; filaments shorter than anthers; ovary partly inferior; stigma 1; fruit berrylike,
oblong, 1-seeded; seed blue. Cultivated and presumably escaped; included based on report
for the Big Thicket National Preserve (Harcombe 2004); no county distribution map is provided.
AR and TX. Summer. Native of Japan. A number of variegated cultivars are known. This
species is not very cold hardy, being used more in frost-free areas (Huxley et al. 1992). I
Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker Gawl., (of Japan), MONDO-GRASS, MONKEY-GRASS, DWARF LILY-
TURF, DWARF MONDO, is widely cultivated in East TX. This native of China, Japan, and Korea is
somewhat similar to O. jaburan but less robust. It can be distinguished by its tuberous roots,
narrower, grass-like leaves (2–4 mm wide) with 3–5 veins, shorter scape (5–12 cm long),
pedicels (2–6 mm long), and tepals (4–5 mm long). Variegated forms are known. This species is
hardier than O. jaburan and can survive temperatures as low as -4° F(-20° C) or even lower
(Huxley et al. 1992). I
POLYGONATUM Mill. SOLOMON’S-SEAL
AA genus of 57 species of herbs with robust horizontal rhizomes. It is distributed in the
warm-temperate to boreal zones of the n hemisphere (especially sw China and Japan) (Tamura
et al. 1997; Conran & Tamura 1998; Utech 2002c). The plants superficially resemble Uvularia,