Rhizomes 0.6-3 × 0.5-1.2 cm; bulbs 1-1.6 cm. Stems 2/3-4/5 floriferous, 0.5-1.5 m. Leaf blades broadly oblanceolate to obovate, slightly plicate, 17-35 × 4.5-12.5 cm, apex obtuse to submucronate. Inflorescences 2.5-10 dm; terminal raceme 1-4.4 dm; secondary racemes spreading to occasionally perpendicular, 0.6-2.2(-2.4) dm; tertiary racemes rare, sometimes replacing first flowers on lower secondaries; bracts subulate, dark green, 2-4 mm, densely floccose abaxially, basally, and marginally. Tepals greenish yellow to olive green, aging to light green, narrowly rhombic to oblanceolate, 5-9 × 1.3-3 mm, base gradually attenuate to a narrow stalk, not clawed, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate; glands obscure, whitened in age, not nectariferous; stamens 3-4.5 mm; filaments inserted on tepal bases, 0.4 mm from ovary base, slightly dilated basally, barely 1/3 as wide as tepals at insertion point; anthers 0.5 mm; ovary ovoid, glabrous; styles 1-1.5 mm; pedicel spreading to nearly perpendicular, 5.5-11 mm. Capsules elliptic-oblong, 10-18 × 7-10 mm, glabrous. Seeds 7.5-10 × 3.5-4.5 mm (including wings). 2n = 16.

Flowering summer. Rich, moist, deciduous woods on mountain slopes and crests; 800--2000 m; Ala., Ga., Ky., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Stem 6-15 dm; lvs and infl as in no. 2 [Veratrum woodii A. W. Wood]; pedicels to 12 mm; tep greenish or yellowish-green, 4-7 mm, glabrous, conspicuously narrowed to the base, not glandular, those of the staminate fls oblanceolate, acuminate or sharply acute, those of the pistillate fls obovate, obtuse or subacute; filaments curved, a third as long as the perianth-segments and adnate to their base; fr as in no. 1; 2n=16. Moist wooded slopes in the mts; Va., W.Va., Ky., N.C., and Tenn. Aug. (Melanthium p.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.