Maianthemum includes the former genus Smilacina and is a genus of perennial herbaceous flowering plant 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. Leaves are simple and may clasp the stem or be short-petiolate. The inflorescence is terminal and either a panicle or a raceme with few to many pedicelate flowers. Most species have 6 tepals and 6 stamens; a few have parts in 4s. Tepals are distinct in most species and all of similar size. Flowers are spreading, cup-shaped or bell-shaped and usually white, but lavender to red or green in some species. Fruits are rounded to lobed berries containing few to several seeds.
Maianthemum canadense is an understory perennial flowering plant, native to Canada and the north-eastern United States, from Yukon and British Columbia east to Newfoundland, into St. Pierre and Miquelon. It can be found growing in both coniferous and deciduous forests. The plant appears in two forms, either as a single leaf rising from the ground with no fruiting structures or as a flowering/fruiting stem with 2-3 leaves. Flowering shoots have clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers held above the leaves.
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.
Maianthemum trifolium is a species of flowering plant that is associated with extremely wet environments and is native to Canada and the northeastern United States as well as St. Pierre and Miquelon and Asia (Siberia).
Maianthemum bifolium is often a localized common rhizomatous flowering plant, native from western Europe east to Siberia, China and Japan.
Maianthemum stellatum is a species of flowering plant, native across North America. It has been found in northern Mexico, every Canadian province and territory except Nunavut, and from every US state except Hawaii and the states of the Southeast. It has little white buds in the spring, followed by delicate starry flowers, then green-and-black striped berries, and finally deep red berries in the fall.
Prosartes hookeri is a North American species of flowering plants in the lily family known by the common names drops of gold and Hooker's fairy bells.
Toxicoscordion paniculatum is a species of flowering plant known by the common names foothill deathcamas and sand-corn. It is widely distributed across much of the western United States, especially in the mountains and deserts of the Great Basin region west of the Rocky Mountains. It grows in many types of habitat, including sagebrush plateau, grasslands, forests, and woodlands, etc.
Leucospermum secundifolium is a low, evergreen shrub that grows along the ground, the tip of the branches slightly rising, which has been assigned to the family Proteaceae. It has narrowly elliptic leaves with a distinct leafstalk, and few-flowered and very small heads of 1–1½ cm (0.4–0.6 in) across. It is called stalked pincushion in English. The sweetly scented flower heads may be found around early December. It is an endemic species that only grows in a small area of the Western Cape province of South-Africa.
Corsia ornata is a species of flowering plant in the genus Corsia of the small family Corsiaceae, part of the monocot order Liliales. They are saprophytes (Myco-heterotrophs), lacking the ability to photosynthesise, being dependent on other organisms for their nutrition. The plant lives underground, sending up purplish stems above ground in order to flower. The leaves are reduced to scales. One of the six petal-like tepals named the labellum, is specialised, being enlarged and hanging protectively over the reproductive organs. It was discovered in New Guinea in 1875, but has since been sighted in Queensland, Australia.
Maianthemum amoenum is a perennial flowering plant, growing as an epiphyte on trees in cloud forests from Mexico south to Honduras.
Maianthemum monteverdense is a perennial flowering plant of restricted distribution. It grows as an epiphyte on trees in high cloud forests of 1600 m + elevation from Nicaragua to Costa Rica.
Maianthemum gigas is a perennial flowering plant. It is found in Mexico and Central America, growing in forest openings and along roadsides or sometimes as an epiphyte on trees.
Maianthemum paludicola is a perennial flowering plant. It is a rare terrestrial herb, endemic to Costa Rica. It has only been found in high-elevation bogs and wetlands and was first described in 1986.
Maianthemum macrophyllum is a perennial flowering plant. It is a rare epiphtic herb endemic to Veracruz and Oaxaca, Mexicoand is known only from primary cloud forests, usually growing on limbs of oaks or sweetgum ..
Maianthemum scilloideum is a perennial flowering plant. It is a terrestrial forest herb from southern Mexico and Guatemala and also reported from Honduras.
Maianthemum flexuosum is a perennial, terrestrial understory herb of cloud forests from southern Mexico to Nicaragua. It has been found at sites from 1300 to 2800 m elevation.
Maianthemum salvinii is a rare perennial, epiphytic herb found in southern Mexico and Guatemala.
Maianthemum mexicanum is a perennial, terrestrial herb found as an understory species in moist forests. It is endemic to west-central Mexico.
Maianthemum comaltepecense is a rare perennial, terrestrial herb found as an understory species in moist forests and endemic to southwest Mexico.
