Common Name: evergreen Solomon's seal
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Asparagaceae
Native Range: China
Zone: 6 to 9
Height: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Spread: 0.75 to 1.00 feet
Bloom Time: May to June
Bloom Description: Creamy white
Sun: Part shade to full shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Ground Cover, Naturalize
Flower: Showy
Leaf: Evergreen
Fruit: Showy
Tolerate: Heavy Shade
Culture
Best grown in moist, humusy, well-drained soils in part shade to full shade. Will slowly naturalize by creeping rhizomes to form colonies in optimum growing conditions. Prefers moist soils in part shade, but tolerates full shade. Foliage is evergreen.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Disporopsis pernyi, sometimes called evergreen Solomon’s seal, is a rhizomatous, clump-forming perennial that is native to shaded mountain areas in forests, valleys or along streams in southern China. It is in the same family as and similar in habit to Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum). It typically grows to 15-18" tall and to 12" wide on strong, upright-arching, purple-spotted stems clad with shiny, leathery, lanceolate to elliptic, dark evergreen leaves (to 5" long). Pendulous, tubular, creamy-white, bell-shaped flowers (each to 3/4") bloom in late spring. Flowers primarily appear singly, but infrequently in clusters of 2-3, as they droop from the stem undersides at each leaf axil. Flowers give way to purple-blue berries (1/4" diameter) that ripen in early autumn.
Specific epithet honors Paul Hubert Perny (1818-1907) a French Roman Catholic missionary in China.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Watch for slugs in spring.
Uses
Shade or open woodland gardens. Naturalizes to form an attractive ground cover.