Nodding mandarin

Streptopus maculatus Buckley, Amer. J. Sci. Arts 45: 170. 1843; Disporum cahnae Farwell; D. maculatum (Buckley) Britton; D. schaffneri Moldenke

Plants 3–8 dm, glabrescent with age. Stems sparingly branched. Leaves 4–15 × 2–4 cm; blade ovate to lanceolate, rounded to subcordate basally, abaxial surface veins and margins pubescent, hairs scattered, flattened, apex sharply acuminate, with (3–)5 prominent veins. Flowers 1–3(–4); perianth broadly campanulate; tepals creamy white spotted with purple, ovate-lanceolate, abruptly narrowly clawed basally, 15–25 mm, apex acuminate; stamens exserted; filaments filiform, 15–20 mm; anthers 3–6 mm; ovary obconic to obpyriform, becoming 3-lobed after anthesis, papillose with ascending, stellate glandular hairs, ovules 2–4 per locule, horizontal; style 1.4–2.3 cm, glabrous; stigma 3-lobed. Berries pale straw-colored, 3-lobed, 6–10-seeded, 10–15 mm, papillose with stellate hairs arising from papillae; lobes subglobose. Seeds 4 mm. 2n = 12.

Flowering early--late spring. Rich, moist, deciduous woods, slopes and ravines; 100--800 m; Ala., Ga., Ky., Mich., N.C., Ohio, Tenn., Va., W.Va.

This rare old-forest obligate is readily distinguished by its purple-spotted, clawed tepals and its three-lobed, straw-colored, hairy-papillose fruit (R. G. Johnson 1968).