Wildflowers with a distribution across large areas usually end up with many common names. This is especially true if the plant was attractive for flower, food or medicinal use, and our native bellwort is no exception. Uses for the plant, besides the blooms, included eating the young shoots as an asparagus substitute. Roots were also used as a salve for wounds and sores. When the wood and meadow served as our medicine chest and food reserves, bellworts were a popular commodity. That common usage led to Uvularia being know as not only bellworts, but also merrybells, haybells, strawflower, wild oats and many other names. Often the common names refer to the shape and color of the blooms, which are hanging bells in various shades of yellow. Scanning a couple of my wildflower references produced no less than thirteen common names.
Uvularia are members of the Lily family. The Lily family is quite large, covering a diversity of plants. In the past, when someone spoke of lilies, I used to form a picture in my mind of a large bulb. Bulbs with long stalks, small leaves and large trumpet shaped flowers at the top. My mental image of a lily was only one of many possibilities. The Lily family includes such well-known plants as tulips, onions, asparagus and many wildflowers such as trilliums, solomon's seal and our bellworts.
 Uvularia grandiflora |
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The large-flowered bellwort, Uvularia grandiflora, is the most showy of the two local species and the first one planted in my garden. It is also the one you are most likely to find in the woods as well as some wildflower and perennial nurseries.
Various heights are given for the plant, but mine reaches about 18 - 20". Flowers are a quiet, light yellow, about two inches in length and slightly twisted. Foliage is medium to pale green, sometimes with a yellowish cast. The underside of the foliage will have a whitish down. The stems are stiff with few leaves until near the top. The stem then branches, drooping over to become a hanger for the flower. With the drooping branches and the flowers fully opened before all the foliage matures and unfurls, the plant has a curious "wilted" look.
I have found that in nature they have a somewhat open growth habit and not as showy as when planted in the garden. When transplanted to good humus-rich in the garden they quickly form clumps of stems and foliage making quite a show when in or out of bloom.
Uvularia perfoliata, or bellwort, is somewhat smaller in height of the two plants and blooms are a bit smaller as well, reaching just over an inch in length. Both the species have leaves pierced by the stem. Leaf color has more of a bluish or grayish cast. U. grandiflora will have short hairs on the undersides of the leaves, while U. perfoliata does not. I also find that this species is more open in growth habit. To contain it just a bit and force tighter clumps of foliage and flower, I bury a circle of lawn edging around my plants.
One of the easiest methods for identifying the various species of Uvularia is to remember that there are four species. Those four species can be divided into two species that have leaves where the stem pierces the leaf, two species where the leaves are clasped. U. grandiflora and U. perfoliata have pierced leaves. The following two species do not.
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Flowers are a pale-yellow or straw color. After the blooms have been pollinated, look for small, triangular, pods in a pale green. This species also has the distinction of being a runner, spreading by stolons.
U. caroliniana (pudica) has the common name of mountain bellwort. While I have had all three of the above species in my garden for some years, I have yet to see this species show up in a native plant catalog. Needless to say, if you have a source, or have plants in your garden for trade, I would appreciate hearing from you. This species is very similar to U. sessile in general appearance, with the exception of the leaves being shinny green on both sides. Flowers are light-yellow and about one inch in length.
All of the species described prefer rich soil, high in organic matter, under the shade of deciduous trees. In the wild I normally locate bellworts at the edge of the woods.
My favorite companion plant to grow next to Uvularia is bluebells (Mertensia virginica), with their contrasting soft blue and pink blooms and wide blue-green leaves. When the bluebells have gone dormant in July, the foliage of the bellworts remains until hard frost. Trilliums are another favorite, especially the maroon blooms and mottled foliage of the recurved trillium. Closer to the forest floor I have the pristine white of the bloodroot blooms, along with their frosty young foliage. Ferns provide a wonderful cool background.
You may also want to consider the many species of solomon's seal, Streptopus or twisted stalks and Disporum, or fairy bells.