Maianthemum stellatum

Starry false lily of the valley

Family: Ruscaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Starry false lily of the valley is a California native perennial found in northwestern, northern California, Sierra Nevada, central western, southwestern, Warner, and eastern Sierra Nevada regions in moist woodland, streambanks, and open slopes at elevations below 2,400 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces white flowers in racemes 2 to 8 centimeters long with 5 to 15 delicate blooms. Growing with straight or slightly zigzag stems 30 to 70 centimeters tall that are smooth to finely hairy, it spreads through a rhizome 3 to 5 millimeters in diameter. Its leaves are large and lance-shaped, typically more than 5 per stem, measuring 5 to 17 centimeters long with finely hairy undersides. The fruit develops as a 7 to 10 millimeter red-purple to black berry, containing small brown seeds.

Habitat: Moist woodland, streambanks, open slopes

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 2400 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, CW, SW, Wrn, SNE

California counties: Humboldt, Inyo, Mono, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Alameda, Tulare, Tuolumne, Riverside, Santa Cruz, Nevada, Shasta, Siskiyou, Monterey, San Mateo, Trinity, Sonoma, Modoc, Santa Clara, Mariposa, Fresno, Del Norte, Santa Barbara, Madera, San Francisco, Colusa, Marin, Placer, El Dorado, Plumas, Glenn, Tehama, Lassen, Sierra, Mendocino, Butte, Kern, Ventura, Contra Costa, Napa, San Diego, Alpine

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.