Stems borne singly or few together from a short, stout, tuber-like, barely subterranean rhizome, simple or branched above, 2-4.5 dm to the first fl, the raceme elongating at anthesis so that the whole pl may reach 6 dm; lvs all simple, the lower long-petioled, the 4-8 cauline ones progressively less so or sessile; basal blades rotund or cordate, mostly about as wide as long, only rarely purplish beneath, generally deciduous before anthesis; cauline blades narrowly oblong to ovate; herbage sparsely to copiously beset with very short hairs to 0.15(0.2) mm; sep green, turning yellow after anthesis; pet white (rarely pink), 7-16 mm; pedicels at maturity ascending to divergent, the lower to 4 cm; fr slender, 1.5-2.5 cm, often abortive, its beak 2-4.5 mm; 2n=64, 80, 96. Moist or wet woods or shallow water; Que. to Minn., S.D., and Kans., s. to Fla. and Tex. Apr.-June. (C. bulbosa

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.