Biology:Clintonia borealis

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Short description: Species of flowering plant
"Bluebead" and "bluebead lily" redirect here. For other uses, see list of plants known as bluebead.

Clintonia borealis
Growing on Mont Tremblant, Quebec

Secure (NatureServe)[1]
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Liliales
Family: Liliaceae
Subfamily: Lilioideae
Genus: Clintonia
Species:
C. borealis
Binomial name
Clintonia borealis
(Aiton) Raf.
Synonyms[2]

Clintonia borealis is a species of flowering plant in the lily family. The specific epithet borealis means "of the north," which alludes to the fact that the species tends to thrive in the boreal forests of eastern Canada and northeastern United States.[3] It is commonly known as bluebead, blue bead-lily, or yellow clintonia.

Description

Clintonia borealis is a small (5–10 in) perennial plant, usually found in homogeneous colonies. At full growth, a shoot has 2–4 clasping and curved, slightly succulent leaves with parallel venation. The flowers are arranged in small umbels at the extremity of a long stalk. They have 6 stamens and 6 yellow tepals (i.e. very similar sepals and petals). In rare cases more than one umbel is found on a shoot or shoots from a clone. The fruits are small luridly blue berries, which are semi-poisonous.[4] A white-berried form (f. albicarpa) also exists.[5][6]

The plant reproduces via seed or vegetatively by underground rhizomes. By either method, the plants are slow to spread. One colony often covers several hundred square meters.[7]

  • Flowering in habitat, Mille-Isles, Quebec
    Flowering in habitat, Mille-Isles, Quebec
  • Fruiting in habitat, Mille-Isles, Quebec
    Fruiting in habitat, Mille-Isles, Quebec
  • Fruits
    Fruits

Taxonomy

In 1789, William Aiton described the species Dracaena borealis Aiton,[8] a name that was to become a synonym for Clintonia borealis (Aiton) Raf. The latter was first described by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1832.[9] Rafinesque also described the genus Clintonia in 1818.[10] The species C. borealis was previously classified within the genus Convallaria.[11]

Names

The name bluebead is used as the common name for Clintonia borealis by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service,[7] but the Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN) prefers yellow clintonia.[12] Other common names include blue bead-lily and corn-lily.[13] The term 'bluebead' refers to the plant's quite toxic small blue spherical fruits, a quite striking feature.[14] Though the name corn-lily is well known, it is also used as a common name for many other plants.[15] (See Corn lily) Likewise, though it is occasionally called poisonberry or snakeberry many other species are also known as this.[16][17] (See Poisonberry and Snakeberry) Other names include Clinton's lily,[18] yellow bead lily,[19] and yellow bluebead-lily.[20]

Regionally, in the southern United States it is called balsam-bell. In state of New Hampshire it is called bear-plum and Canada-mayflower. In both Maine and Massachusetts it is wild lily-of-the-valley and dragoness-plant and heal-all in Massachusetts and New Brunswick. The greatest number of common names is in Maine where it is known as bear-tongue, bear's corn, calf-corn, dogberry, hound's-tongue, northern-lily, and wild-corn. Additionally it is cow-tongue in Maine and New Brunswick.[21]

Distribution

Clintonia borealis is a wide-ranging species in eastern North America, from Newfoundland and Labrador across New England into the Great Lakes region west to Manitoba and Minnesota.[2][22] Its range extends southward into the Appalachian Mountains where it is allopatric with C. umbellulata, that is, the ranges of the two species do not significantly overlap but are immediately adjacent to one another. In the Appalachians, C. umbellulata prefers hardwood forests less than 1,000 m (3,281 ft) while C. borealis populates coniferous or mixed forests up to 1,600 m (5,249 ft).[13][23]

C. borealis is globally secure but threatened in Maryland and Tennessee.[1] It is an endangered species in Ohio and Indiana.[24][25]

Ecology

Cultivation

Usage

Medicine

Food

The young leaves of the plant are edible while still only a few inches tall.[26] The fruit however, is mildly toxic, and is quite unpleasant tasting.[3]

Folklore

See also

  • Bead lily
  • List of plants known as lily

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 NatureServe. "Clintonia borealis" (in en). Arlington, Virginia. https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.153238/. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Clintonia borealis (Aiton) Raf.". Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:30082120-2. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis (Ait.) Raf.)". U.S. Forest Service. https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/clintonia_borealis.shtml. 
  4. ↑ Niering, William A.; Olmstead, Nancy C. (1985). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, Eastern Region. Knopf. p. 597. ISBN 0-394-50432-1. 
  5. ↑ Gleason, H. A. & A.J. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (ed. 2) i–910. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx.
  6. ↑ Scoggan, H. J. (1978). Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Monocotyledoneae. 2: 93–545. In Flora of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Clintonia borealis". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=CLBO3. Retrieved 2 September 2020. 
  8. ↑ Aiton, William (1789). "Dracaena borealis". Hortus Kewensis (London) 1: 454. http://www.botanicus.org/page/852433. Retrieved 3 September 2020. 
  9. ↑ Rafinesque, Constantine Samuel (1832). "Clintonia borealis". Atlantic Journal, and Friend of Knowledge 1 (3): 120. https://books.google.com/books?id=xA48AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA120. Retrieved 4 September 2020. 
  10. ↑ POWO (2026). "Clintonia Raf." (in en). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/30082121-2. 
  11. ↑ Poiret, J. L. M. (1817). "Convallaria borealis (Aiton) Poir.". Encyclopédie Méthodique Supplement, Tome V: 737. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/782025#page/743/mode/1up. Retrieved 3 September 2020. 
  12. ↑ VASCAN; Acadia University; Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre; University of Toronto Mississauga; University of British Columbia (2026). "Clintonia borealis (Aiton) Rafinesque - Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN)" (in en-us). https://data.canadensys.net/vascan/taxon/6513?lang=en. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Utech, Frederick H. (2002), "Clintonia borealis", in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA), 26, New York and Oxford, http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220003043, retrieved 4 August 2020 
  14. ↑ Barker, Joan (2004). The Encyclopedia of North American Wild Flowers. Bath, United Kingdom: Parragon Publishing. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-4054-3035-7. OCLC 56759503. https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofno0000bark. Retrieved 8 April 2026. 
  15. ↑ "Corn lily". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corn+lily. Retrieved 8 April 2026. 
  16. ↑ Gillett, John M.; White, David J. (1978) (in en, fr). Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Ottawa-Hull region, Canada = Liste des plantes vasculaires de la râegion d'Ottawa-Hull, Canada. Ottawa, Canada: National Museum of Natural Sciences, National Museums of Canada. pp. 37, 59. ISBN 978-0-660-00091-6. OCLC 7539871. https://archive.org/details/checklistofvascu00gill. Retrieved 9 April 2026. 
  17. ↑ Wallner, Jeff; DiGregorio, Mario (1997). New England's Mountain Flowers: a high country heritage. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Co. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-87842-337-8. OCLC 36225299. https://archive.org/details/newenglandsmount0000wall. Retrieved 9 April 2026. 
  18. ↑ Hemmerly, Thomas Ellsworth (2000). Appalachian Wildflowers. University of Georgia Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780820321646. https://books.google.com/books?id=VMI1nXtMuVEC&pg=PA122. 
  19. ↑ Case, Frederick W. (1978). Wild Flowers of the Northeastern States. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-07-046371-4. OCLC 3481317. https://archive.org/details/wildflowersofnor0000case. Retrieved 8 April 2026. 
  20. ↑ Johnson, Timothy (1999). CRC Ethnobotany Desk Reference. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-0-8493-1187-1. OCLC 39765430. 
  21. ↑ Coffey, Timothy (1994). The History and Folklore of North American Wildflowers. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-395-51593-8. OCLC 29797514. https://archive.org/details/historyfolkloreo00coff_0. Retrieved 8 April 2026. 
  22. ↑ " Clintonia borealis", County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA) (Biota of North America Program (BONAP)), 2014, http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Clintonia%20borealis.png, retrieved 1 September 2020 
  23. ↑ Utech, Frederick H. (2002), "Clintonia umbellulata", in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA), 26, New York and Oxford, http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242101530, retrieved 24 August 2020 
  24. ↑ "Rare Native Ohio Plants: 2018-19 Status List". Ohio Department of Natural Resources. https://ohiodnr.gov/wps/wcm/connect/gov/9389b4eb-97a9-4e3e-ab18-19541f731e3e/2018-19+Ohio+Rare+Plants+Status+List+FINAL.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=nfZL7rX. 
  25. ↑ "Endangered, Threatened, and Extirpated Plants of Indiana". Indiana Department of Natural Resources. 2020-03-09. http://www.state.in.us/dnr/naturepreserve/files/np-etrplants.pdf. 
  26. ↑ "Wildflowers of the Adirondacks: Clintonia (Clintonia borealis)". https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-wildflowers-clintonia-clintonia-borealis.html. 

Bibliography

Wikidata ☰ Q291670 entry



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