Solomon's Seal

Solomon's seal

Any of about 25 species of herbaceous perennials that make up the genus Polygonatum (lily family), found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Particularly common in the eastern U.S. and Canada, Solomon's seals flourish in damp, wooded areas and thickets. They have thick, creeping rhizomes and tall, drooping stems, and they bear clusters of white or greenish-white flowers in the axils of leaves, followed by drooping red berries. Similar plants of the genus Smilacina, known as false Solomon's seal, bear their flower clusters at the tips of the stems.

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Solomon's seal

any of several liliaceous plants of the genus Polygonatum of N temperate regions, having greenish or yellow paired flowers, long narrow waxy leaves, and a thick underground stem with prominent leaf scars

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Solomon’s Seal 

any one plant of the genus Polygonatum of the family Liliaceae. Solomon’s seals are perennial herbs with ovate or elliptical leaves and thick horizontal rootstocks. The latter are marked with rounded seal-like scars where the old stems have disappeared. Each leaf axil has one to four bisexual flowers. The tubular perianth is greenish white or sometimes pink. The fruit is a berry. There are more than 30 species (according to other data, as many as 50), distributed primarily in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Seventeen species are found in the USSR, among forests (predominantly mixed and deciduous forests), thickets, and meadows. The best-known species are sweet-scented Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum; formerly P. officinale), with one or two flowers in each axil, and common Solomon’s seal (P. multiflorum), with two to five flowers in each axil. Some species of Solomon’s seal are cultivated as ornamentals.