Large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) is a plant in the family Colchicaceae

Colchicaceae

Colchicaceae is a botanical name of a family of flowering plants.The APG III system, of 2009 , does recognize such a family and places it in the order Liliales, in the clade monocots, and regards the family as including some two hundred species of herbaceous perennials with rhizomes or corms.The...

, native to eastern North America.
It blooms in May, producing large yellow flowers. The top parts of the plant tend to bend downward due to the weight of the leaves and flowers. The light green stems are round, glabrous, and glaucous

Glaucous

Glaucous is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the Glaucous Gull , Glaucous-winged Gull , Glaucous Macaw , and Glaucous...

 and the leaves are perfoliate since the stem appears to come through the leaves at the base.

Large flowered bellwort are different from Uvularia sessilifolia

Uvularia sessilifolia

Sessile bellwort or wild oats is a species of bellwort native to Eastern North America. It grows in woodlands with wet or dry soils.The strap-like leaves are sessile on the stem...

in that the leaves of U. sessilifolia grow from the stem

Sessility (botany)

In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...

 and its flowers are smaller. U. grandiflora are also different from Uvularia perfoliata, which occurs in Central North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. U. perfoliata has similar large perfoliate leaves like the grandiflora, but the flowers have orange-coloured bumps on the petals.
Bumblebee

Bumblebee

A bumble bee is any member of the bee genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere although they are common in New Zealand and in the Australian state of Tasmania.Bumble bees are social insects that are characterised by black...

s, Mason bee

Mason bee

Mason bee is a common name for species of bees in the genus Osmia, of the family Megachilidae. They are named from their habit of making compartments of mud in their nests, which are made in hollow reeds or holes in wood made by wood boring insects....

s, Halictid bees, and Andrenid bees feed from the nectar and collect pollen from the flowers. Deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 love to eat these plants.

In fall three capsuled ovaries can be observed on some individuals.
The seeds have attached food bodies (elaiosome

Elaiosome

Elaiosomes are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome is rich in lipids and proteins, and may be variously shaped. Many plants have elaiosomes to attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae...

) making it attractive to ant

Ant

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...

s for the redistribution of the seeds.

Its native range extends from the Appalachian mountains

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

 west to the Dakotas

The Dakotas

The Dakotas is a collective term that refers to the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota together. The term has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is continued to be used to describe the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, the economy, and...

, north to Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

 and Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, and south to Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 and Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

.

External links

• http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=R260
• http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/lf_bellwort.htm