Clintonia umbellulata

Clintonia umbellulata, commonly known as white clintonia or speckled wood-lily, is a species of flowering plant in the lily family Liliaceae. The specific epithet umbellulata means "umbelled," which refers to the shape of the plant’s inflorescence.

Description

Clintonia umbellulata is a perennial herbaceous plant that spreads by means of underground rhizomes. A plant stands tall with 2-4 dark green leaves, each long and wide. The inflorescence is a single terminal umbel with 10-25 outward-facing flowers on a flowering stalk up to high. Each flower has six tepals and six stamens. The tepals are white or greenish white, often marked with purplish brown or green speckles, each tepal being long and wide. The stamens are 60% longer than the tepals. The fruits are black berries, each long with 2-4 seeds per berry. Each seed is approximately long.

Similar species

Because of their proximity, Clintonia umbellulata and C. borealis are often confused. The following table compares the two species character by character :

	Clintonia umbellulata	Clintonia borealis
Habitat	Hardwood forests less than	Mixed forests up to
Height	Plant stands tall	Plant stands tall
Leaves	Leaves 3-4, blade dark green, each leaf long and wide	Leaves 2-4, blade dark glossy green, each leaf long and wide
Flower buds	A tight cluster of spherical buds	A loose cluster of elongate buds
Inflorescence	Terminal umbel, 10-25 outward-facing flowers	Terminal raceme, 3-8 nodding flowers
Flowers	Tepals white or greenish white, often marked with purplish brown or green speckles, each tepal long and wide; filaments long; anthers approximately long	Tepals yellow or yellowish green, each tepal long and wide; filaments long; anthers approximately long
Fruits	Berries black, globose to ellipsoid, each berry long; seeds 2-4 per berry, each seed approximately long	Berries ultramarine blue, ovoid, each berry long; seeds 8-16 per berry, each seed approximately long

Based on morphological characters alone, bare-leaved plants may be difficult to identify. In this case, Clintonia umbellulata is distinguished from C. borealis by the presence of hairs longer than 1 millimeter on the underside midvein.
C. umbellulata has numerous look-alikes. For example, the inflorescence of the small white leek is very similar in appearance. To distinguish the two, look at the leaves. The leaves of A. tricoccum have usually wilted by the time the plant is in full bloom while the leaves of C. umbellulata remain throughout the summer months.

Taxonomy

In 1803, André Michaux described the species Convallaria umbellulata Michx., a name that was to become a synonym for Clintonia umbellulata Morong. The latter was first described by Thomas Morong in 1894.
In 1933, John Kunkel Small described the segregate species Xeniatrum umbellulatum, a distinction that did not persist. Numerous other synonyms are in use. Perhaps the best known is Clintonia alleghaniensis Harned, which unlike C. umbellulata has ultramarine blue fruit. It is known to occur at a number of sites in Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia.

Distribution

Clintonia umbellulata is endemic to the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, from New York to Georgia. Counties where the species is known to occur are listed below:

New York: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Livingston, Wyoming
Ohio: Ashland, Ashtabula, Columbiana, Coshocton, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, Mahoning, Portage, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Wayne
Pennsylvania: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Lawrence, Mercer, Somerset, Venango, Warren, Washington, Westmoreland
Maryland: Allegany, Garrett
West Virginia: Barbour, Braxton, Fayette, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hardy, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, McDowell, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Preston, Randolph, Ritchie, Summers, Tucker, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wyoming
Virginia: Albemarle, Alleghany, Amherst, Augusta, Bath, Bedford, Bland, Botetourt, Buchanan, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Floyd, Franklin, Giles, Grayson, Greene, Henry, Highland, Lee, Madison, Montgomery, Nelson, Page, Patrick, Pulaski, Rappahannock, Roanoke, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Warren, Washington, Wise, Wythe
Kentucky: Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Harlan, Jackson, Laurel, Lee, Letcher, Menifee, Morgan, Perry, Powell, Rockcastle, Rowan, Wolf
Tennessee: Blount, Campbell, Carter, Cocke, Cumberland, Greene, Hawkins, Johnson, Monroe, Morgan, Polk, Rhea, Sequatchie, Sevier, Sullivan, Unicoi
North Carolina: Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Surry, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, Yancey
South Carolina: Greenville, Oconee, Pickens
Georgia: Gilmer, Habersham, Lumpkin, Murray, Rabun, Towns, Union, White

The range of C. umbellulata apparently overlaps with that of C. borealis throughout the Appalachian Mountains. Actually C. umbellulata and C. borealis are allopatric, that is, the ranges of the two species do not significantly overlap but are immediately adjacent to one another.
C. umbellulata is globally secure, rare and imperiled in New York, and endangered in Ohio.