Family:
Liliaceae
Common Name(s):
Carrion flower
Flowering Time:
May to June
Fruit/Seed Maturation Sign:
Berries turn purple
Fruit/Seed Collection Dates:
October through winter
Seed Cleaning:
Remove seeds from pulp
Storage:
Unknown if the seeds tolerate dry storage
Restoration Potential:
Low
Notes
Produces few fruits and seeds per plant (Barkely 1986, Gleason and Cronquist 1991). Seeds stored in cold, moist sphagnum upon collection deteriorated; seeds sowed outside did not germinate (Mabry and Mottl, personal observation).
Root tuberous (Runkel and Bull 2009).
Fun Fact: The flowers smell like a "dead rat in a wall" -- Henry David Thoreau (Blanchan 1900).
"A flower that smells something like a dead rat produces a berry that is edible -- an amazing feat" (Runkel and Bull 2009).
Pollinators: Species attracted by the smell, including flesh flies, blowflies, houseflies and some beetles (Johnson 2016)
