Rough-fruited fairy-bells, rough-fruited mandarin

Disporum trachycarpum (S. Watson) Bentham & Hooker f.; D. trachycarpum var. subglabrum E. H. Kelso

Plants 3–8 dm, crisp-pubescent, glabrate or glabrous with age. Stems sparingly branched. Leaves 4–12 × 2–5 cm; blade ovate to oblong-lanceolate, subcordate to oblique basally, abaxial surface and margins moderately pubescent, hairs scattered, flattened, apex acute to short-acuminate, with 7–9 prominent veins. Flowers 1–2(–3); perianth narrowly campanulate; tepals creamy to greenish white, narrowly oblanceolate, 8–15 mm; stamens mostly exserted; filaments filiform, 10–15 mm; anthers 3–4(–5) mm; ovary broadly ovoid to obovoid, becoming 3-lobed and obpyriform after anthesis, finely papillose, ovules 2–6 per locule, horizontal; style 0.9–1.2 cm, glabrous or pubescent; stigma unlobed or 3-lobed. Berries reddish orange to bright red, 6–12(–18)-seeded, depressed-globose, 12–18 mm, strongly papillose. Seeds 4–5 mm. 2n = 22.

Flowering late spring--summer. Rich, shady deciduous forests, aspen groves to open coniferous forests; 300--2500 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Sask.; Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., N.Mex., N.Dak., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

The recently discovered populations of Prosartes trachycarpa in Isle Royale National Park, Michigan (E. J. Judziewicz et al. 1997), are noteworthy disjunctions for this otherwise western species.