Species Name:  Smilicina racemosa

Common Name: False Solomon Seal

Zone: 3 to 8

Distribution: Ontario Canada throughout the eastern US to Florida

Seed collection: Seed matures in September.  Some fruit remains on the plant into November.  Seed is produced in terminal cluster on the end of each stem.  A cluster may contain 50 or more fruits.  As the fruit matures the color changes from light green to white with red flecks finally changing to deep red.

Seed handling: Collect fruits when the color has completely turned on a few fruits in the cluster. The flesh on fruits that have not completely turned to red will still be hard but the fruits will finish ripening.  Strip the seed from the plants.  Remove the pulp from the seed by macerating and floating off the pulp and skins. Sound seeds will sink to the bottom of the container.

Each fruit contains one perfectly round porcelain white seed. 

Germination requirements: Seed requires warm moist stratification for 1 to 2 months then cold moist for 3 to 4 months.  Seed may require repeated cycles of W/C/W/C before germination.  Under natural conditions a few seed may germinate the first spring but most seed will take 2 years or more to overcome dormancy. Early collection, cleaning and stratification will help speed up germination.

Ecology: False Solomon seal can be found in a range of woodland habitats, from rich lowland forests to dry rocky upland forests.  It is most abundant on deep rich soils in association with a host of other woodland forbs such as trillium, hepatica, wild ginger, wild leeks.  It can grow in large patches or as part of a diverse herbaceous community.   It will grow in light shade to deep shade. The fruits are eaten by several species of woodland birds and small mammals .  Deer will feed on the foliage.  FSS is easy to naturalize in the wild and is an imporatnt long lived perennial understory forb for wildlife providing both food and cover. Encourage its widespread establishment in suitable habitat. Collect the abundant fruit and plant directly in the soil or broadcast the seed if time is short.

Fruits turn red in September when ripe. Seed can be collected early
before they turn red. They will finish ripening in storage.

Smilicina produces abundant fruits and often grows in large dense patches.

False solomon seal first true leaves shortly after germinaton.
Seedlings remain quite small the first growing season.

Seedlings may have only one leaf or sometimes two or three the first season.

this page posted February 20, 2008