Species
+

Maianthemum racemosum (L.) Link

False Solomon's-seal, False Spikenard, Fat Solomon, Solomon's-zigzag, Spikenard False, Treacleberry, False Spikenard, Solomon's Seal False, Feathery False Lily Of The Valley

Climate known 51 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Maianthemum racemosum, the treacleberry, feathery false lily of the valley, false Solomon's seal, Solomon's plume or false spikenard, is a species of flowering plant native to North America. It is a common, widespread plant with numerous common names and synonyms, known from every US state except Hawaii, and from every Canadian province and territory, as well as from Mexico.

Text from Wikipedia, “Maianthemum racemosum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Maianthemum

Maianthemum includes the former genus Smilacina and is a genus of perennial herbaceous flowering plants with fleshy, persistent rhizomes. It is widespread across much of North America, Europe and Asia, and may be terrestrial, aquatic or epiphytic. It is characterized by simple, unbranched stems that are upright, leaning or hanging down and have 2–17 foliage leaves. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Maianthemum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(L.) Link
Native to
Alaska, Northwest Territories, Alberta +59
Wild records
1974 in range· 524 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1093mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 102 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (April to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1093 mm a year, wettest June at 102 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -17.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Convallaria racemosa L.; Polygonastrum racemosum (L.) Moench; Smilacina racemosa (L.) Desf.; Smilacina racemosa var. racemosa; Smilacina racemosa var. typica Fernald and 5 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (April to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (852 mm of 1093 mm) takes 9 months, April to December. Mean temperature moves 24.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1093 mm a year, wettest June at 102 mm, driest February at 74 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1093 mm a year at the habitat, 852 mm of it April to December. Wettest month June at 102 mm, driest February at 74 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 717 mm to 1584 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -17.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -17.4 °C, the absolute minimum -30.3 °C, about 130 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -7.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.1 °C to 1.0 °C), warmest day 26.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -17.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 1 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -7 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1093 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1647 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -30.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost33.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-30.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 10–40RH 56–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1647 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -5–93 / -3–107 / 2–1413 / 8–1819 / 14–2323 / 19–2726 / 22–2925 / 22–2921 / 18–2515 / 11–208 / 3–142 / -3–9
Night °C-7 / -14–1-6 / -12–2-2 / -8–43 / -2–89 / 3–1214 / 7–1817 / 10–2016 / 10–2013 / 7–167 / 2–101 / -5–6-4 / -11–2
Rain mm81 / 37–21374 / 34–17886 / 46–15991 / 52–12698 / 51–127102 / 34–12799 / 15–13092 / 17–12293 / 31–11890 / 51–13095 / 53–19692 / 44–224
DLI12 / 8–1618 / 15–2126 / 23–3033 / 30–3937 / 35–4640 / 38–5040 / 37–4934 / 33–4427 / 24–3619 / 15–2612 / 9–1810 / 7–14
RH %62 / 57–6660 / 56–6457 / 55–6256 / 54–6057 / 54–6058 / 52–6158 / 50–6159 / 50–6259 / 51–6259 / 54–6260 / 57–6562 / 57–66

Each figure is the median across the 1647 grid cells holding the 1891 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 935:2004 (43.225, -79.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -30.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1647 distinct grid cells holding the 1891 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 935:2004 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.00_-80.000, lapse-corrected -97 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 113 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlaska, Northwest Territories, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker38.858, -77.328 · in the densest population, 786 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1974 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 524 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 26 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 83 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1974 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Maianthemum racemosumMaianthemum racemosumMaianthemum racemosumMaianthemum racemosumMaianthemum racemosumMaianthemum racemosumMaianthemum racemosumMaianthemum racemosum

Photographs: (c) Tom Pollard, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ed Alverson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Bonnie Semmling, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) bobkennedy, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Laura J. Costello, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Alison Northup, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Maianthemum racemosum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
Kathleen Boothroyd-Roberts, Daniel Gagnon, Benoît Truax (2013) · SpringerPlus
Effects of deer on the photosynthetic performance of invasive and native forest herbs
J. Mason Heberling, Nathan L. Brouwer, Susan Kalisz (2017) · AoB Plants
Two new species of Dichorisandra (Commelinaceae) from Rio de Janeiro and comments on the two species included in Vellozo’s “Flora Fluminensis”
Lidyanne Yuriko Saleme Aona, Volker Bittrich, Maria do Carmo Estanislau do Amaral (2014) · Phytotaxa
Mycorrhizal Network Connections, Water Reduction, and Neighboring Plant Species Differentially Impact Seedling Performance of Two Forest Wildflowers
David J. Burke, Mary K. Klenkar, Juliana S. Medeiros (2018) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
First Report of Foliar Infection of Maianthemum racemosum by Phytophthora ramorum
D. Hüberli, Kelly Ivors, A. R. Smith, Justin Tse (2005) · Plant Disease

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Maianthemum 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 77 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.