Description
Paris verticillata grows from a slender, creeping rhizome, only some 5 mm in diameter but this makes stems from 25-60 cm tall which bear a rosette of 5-8, slightly wavy edged leaves, above which a good-sized flower combining 4 or 5 green sepals with large yellow anthers and a purple ovary tipped with 3-5-pronged stigma lobes sitting like an exotic, miniature toasting-fork on top.
Easily grown as for other creeping Paris species such as quadrifolia and incompleta and an excellent garden or pot species, remarkably conspicuous for a plant of such subdued colouring. Light shade in a leafy or humus rich soil suits most Paris, this one is no exception.
Spread across China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Russia but little seen. The identity of Paris verticillata in horticulture has been the centre of much confusion. Chinese imports grown under this name are seldom, if ever, correctly named. We have a new Japanese nursery stock, which is the true and correct plant with a slender, creeping rhizome, as it should be.
