Montana Field Guide

Scapose, rhizomatous perennials with a skunky odor. Leaves basal, petiolate; blades elliptic to obovate, entire, 20–100 cm long, greatly expanding in fruit. Inflorescence: scape 15–80 cm, expanding in fruit; flowers densely clustered on a cylindrical spike (spadix) 3–14 cm long, mostly enclosed by a deciduous, yellow, hood-like bract (spathe) 10–20 cm long that sheaths the scape. Flowers perfect, yellowish; tepals 4, ca. 2 mm long, separate; stamens 4; ovary superior, 1- or 2-celled; style 1. Fruit a green to red, ovoid 1- or 2-seeded berry, 3–10 mm long embedded in the fleshy spadix (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Vernally inundated, wet, organic soil of spruce swamps, alder thickets; valleys (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).