If you can only recognize a plant by its flowers, then you can only identify it for a short period of time each year. I want to do better than that. I want to be able to recognize my favorite plants whenever I see them. So, this spring I’ve been paying extra close attention to what’s growing in my yard and taking pictures of the plants as they develop so that I can get to know them better.
False Solomon’s seal has long been a favorite plant of mine. I knew several places where it was likely to sprout this year, and sure enough, it showed up exactly where I thought it would. Primed for noticing the plant, I found it sprouting in several other places, too. But then, looking closer at some of the individual plants, I realized that not all of it was false Solomon’s seal. Some of it was Solomon’s seal!
Here you can see why I identified it as hairy Solomon’s seal rather than smooth Solomon’s seal. The undersides of the leaves are decidedly hairy.
Solomon’s seal and false Solomon’s seal are related and, as their names imply, they look a lot alike. I don’t know if I’ll be able to learn how to tell them apart all year round, but their flowers and fruit are dead giveaways. Solomon’s seal flowers hang below the plant and the berries are blue-black. False Solomon’s seal has a showy plume of flowers (it is sometimes called “Solomon’s plume”), and its berries are speckled red.
It’s likely that hairy Solomon’s seal has been growing here all along and I simply never noticed it because it was smaller and less showy than its cousin. But I’ve noticed it now, and I will keep an eye on it over the course of the year, too. More pictures to come soon, I hope!
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