I would make a chart of our life,
know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.
Observe all kinds of coincidences,
as what kinds of birds come with what flowers.
Henry Thoreau
The single modest-colored flower gracefully drooping,
neat, with a fugacious, richly spiced fragrance, facing the ground . . .
a beautiful sight, a pleasing discovery, the first of the season. . .
When you turn up the drooping flower,
its petals make a perfect geometrical figure, a six-pointed star.
Sessile-leaved bellwort
Avesong, April 24, 2023
May 3. P. M. – Ride to Flint's Pond to look for Uvularia perfoliata [see May 30, 1857 ] . . . See no signs of the Uvularia perfoliata yet; apparently will not bloom within ten days . . . In the woods near the Uvularia perfoliata, see and hear a new bird to me . . . At first it was silent, and I took it for the common pewee, but . . . It surprised me by singing in a novel and powerful and rich strain. Yet it may be the white-eyed [solitary] vireo (which I do not know), if it comes so early. May 3, 1858
May 6. Uvularia sessilifolia just begun. May 6, 1853
May 11. Uvularia perfoliata out in rain; say, then, the 9th. Just after plucking it I perceived what I call the meadow fragrance, though in the woods; but I afterward found that this flower was peculiarly fragrant, and its fragrance like that, so it was probably this which I had perceived. S. was reminded of the lily-of-the-valley by it. May 11, 1859
May 13. Uvularias, amid the dry tree-tops near the azaleas. May 13, 1854
May 13. P. M. – To Island Uvularia sessilifolia is well out in Island woods, opposite Bath Rock; how long? May 13, 1858
May 13. At Holden Swamp, hear plenty of parti-colored warblers (tweezer-birds) and redstarts. Uvularia sessilifolia abundant, how long? May 13, 1860
May 14. The Uvularia sessilifolio, a drooping flower with tender stems and leaves; the latter curled so as to show their under sides hanging about the stems, as if shrinking from the cold .May 14, 1852
May 16. The sessile-leaved bellwort, with three or four delicate pale-green leaves with reflexed edges, on a tender-looking stalk, the single modest-colored flower gracefully drooping, neat, with a fugacious, richly spiced fragrance, facing the ground, the dry leaves, as if unworthy to face the heavens. It is a beautiful sight, a pleasing discovery, the first of the season, -- growing in a little straggling company, in damp woods or swamps. When you turn up the drooping flower, its petals make a perfect geometrical figure, a six-pointed star. May 16, 1852
May 16. P. M. – To Uvularia perfoliata at Flint's Pond, which did not show itself at all on the 3d, is now conspicuous, and one is open but will not shed pollen before to-morrow. It has shot up about ten inches in one case and bloomed within thirteen days!! May 16, 1858
May 30. By the path near the northeast shore of Flint's Pond, just before reaching the wall by the brook, I see what I take to be an uncommonly large Uvularia sessilifolia flower, but, looking again, am surprised to find it the Uvularia perfoliata, which I have not found hereabouts before. It is a taller and much more erect plant than the other, with a larger flower, methinks. It is considerably past its prime and probably began with the other. May 30, 1857
June 2. [climbing Monadnock] Uvularia grandiflora, not long begun to bloom. June 2, 1858
June 3. Saw the Uvularia perfoliata, perfoliate bellwort, in Worcester near the hill; an abundance of mountain laurel on the hills, now budded to blossom and the fresh lighter growth contrasting with the dark green; an abundance of very large checkerberries, or partridge berries, as Bigelow calls them, on Hasnebumskit. June 3, 1851
June 14. Walk to Hermitage Woods with Sophia and aunts. Uvularia perfoliata very common there; now out of bloom. June 14, 1856
July 25. Large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora), in fruit. [The Maine Woods] July 25, 1857
August 22. Edward Hoar . . . says he found the Uvularia perfoliata on the Stow road, he thinks within Concord bounds. August 22, 1857
August 26. The Uvularia sessilifolia is for the most part turned yellow, with large green fruit, or even withered and brown. August 26, 1859
August 30. The plants now decayed and decaying and withering are those early ones which grow in wet or shady places, as hellebore, skunk-cabbage, the two (and perhaps three) smilacinas, uvularias, polygonatum, medeola, Senecio aureus (except radical leaves), and many brakes and sarsaparillas. August 30, 1859
September 6. The sessile-leaved bellwort is yellow, green, and brown, all together or separately. September 6, 1854
September 22. Sophia has in her herbarium and has found in Concord these which I have not seen this summer: . . . Uvularia perfoliata, Bigelow says May. September 22, 1852
October 22. It is just about nine miles, as I walk, from here around Flint’s Pond . . . I saw some hickory sprouts above the perfoliate bellwort near the pond. October 22, 1857
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Bellworts
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2023
* Sessile-leaved bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia )is the most widespread and common bellwort in New England, inhabiting deciduous and mixed evergreen deciduous forests, woodlands and edges throughout. The sessile (without a stalk but not perfoliate) leaves distinguish this species from large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) and perfoliate bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata).
*Large-flowered bellwort is distributed in rich, moist, deciduous forests in western New England.
*Perfoliate bellwort becomes increasingly rare in northern New England, and is absent in Maine. The name refers to the way the stem seems to pierce through the leaf blade. Large-flowered bellwort also has perfoliate leaves.~ GoBotany
(Thoreau’s only references to Concord occurrence of the perfoliate bellwort are second-hand. See August 22, 1857, and September 22, 1852 ) ~ Ray Angelo, Vascular Flora of Concord, Massachusetts)
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