Sunday, May 17, 2009

Salomon's Seal

 
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Solomon's Seal is a common enough sight in early spring blooming in the Smokies. It appears calm and elegant to me, although those are strange words to apply to a plant. Nevertheless... I have a variegated one in my woods garden here in east central Alabama. There are quite a number of species with variations in number of flowers, hairiness of leaves, etc. It was formerly in the Lily family but has been reclassified to the Ruscaceae. They are frequently sold for the garden, but I seldom see them in woods around here. I suppose it is because of livestock as well as the current population of deer. I did read that they are poisonous, so maybe it is a habitat destruction issue. As for poison, they are listed as edible with proper treatment (maybe like poke weed?) and as a medicinal herb and we all know medicine is poisonous.

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