The medeola berries

September 2.

The maple-leaved viburnum berries are a dark purple or black now. They are scarce.

The red pyrus berries are ripe.

The dense oval bunches of arum berries now startle the walker in swamps. They are a brilliant vermilion on a rich ground, seen where they have fallen off, which ground turns dark-purple.

The medeola berries are now dull glossy and almost blue-black; about three, on slender threads one inch long, arising in the midst of the cup formed by the purple bases of the whorl of three upper leaves.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 2, 1853

The dense oval bunches of arum berries now startle the walker in swamps. See September 28, 1856 (“The arum berries are still fresh and abundant, perhaps in their prime. . . .It is one of the most remarkable and dazzling, if not the handsomest, fruits we have.”)

The medeola berries are now dull glossy and almost blue-black. . . arising in the midst of the cup formed by the purple bases of the whorl of three upper leaves. See  May 25, 1852 ("Medeola or cucumber-root in bud, with its two-storied whorl of leaves. "); June 2, 1853 ("The medeola has been out a day or two . . . -- another green flower."); August 27, 1851 ("The Medeola Virginica, cucumber-root, the whorl-leaved plant, is now in green fruit.")  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Cucumber Root (medeola)