Indicator Plants

• Perennial Herb
• Common in moist forest, avalanche tracks, and streambanks
• Low to subalpine elevations

• Form: 0.5-1 m tall, sometimes taller, branched, sometimes zig-zagging at leaf nodes
• Leaves: Oval, 5-14 cm long, clasping at base, hairless beneath, margins sometimes having irregular spacing of teeth
• Flowers: Greenish white, bell-shaped, hang individually or in twos from kinked stalk in leaf axil
• Fruit: Yellowish red to purple oblong berries

• When young, resembles Veratrum viride (Indian hellebore), one of the most deadly-poisonous plants in our region
• Can be very easily confused with a number of similar lilies when non-reproductive:
  • Mainthemum racemosum  or  Mainthemum stellata (False Solomon’s seal or Star-flowered false Solomon’s seal) - unbranched, leaves don’t clasp
  • Streptopus roseus (Rosy twisted stalk)– typically unbranched, leaves shiny beneath, leaf margin/edge and nodes with hairs
  • Disporum hookeri (Hooker’s fairybells)- hairs on upper leaf surface and along stem
• If there are flowers, check that they are borne on kinked stems in leaf axils for Streptopus amplexifolius
  • Streptopus roseus flowers are pink and borne on curved stems

• Young shoots and roots eaten by some coastal peoples for medicinal purposes, but berries were generally considered to be poisonous

E-Flora of BC - Streptopus amplexifolius

Douglas, G.W. et al (Editors). 1998-2002. Illustrated Flora of British Columbia, Volumes 1 to 8. B.C. Min. Environ., Lands and Parks, and B.C. Min. For., Victoria, B.C.

Pojar, J. and A. MacKinnon. 2014. Plants of Coastal British Columbia Including Washington, Oregon & Alaska. B.C. Ministry of Forestry and Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, B.C.