Lily Family – Liliaceae
Actual flower size: 1.5 inch across
Queens’ Cup, sometimes called Beadlily, Bluebead, or Bride’s Bonnet.
Plant Description: Queens’ Cup grows from rhizomes which form an extensive underground network of roots, sometimes creating large patches. Each plant has a single 4 to 8 inch flowering stem and 2 or 3 glossy, broadly-oval, parallel-veined, dark green basal leaves and. The leaves persist until frost, marking the location of Queen’s Cup long after the flowers and berries are gone.
Flower Description: The flowers of Queen’s Cup are white and large ( 1 to 1.5 inches across) and showy. The flower has 6 white tepals which spread broadly, 6 golden stamen, and a pistil with 3 short stigma lobes. The plant produces only one flower, hence the name “uniflora.”
Ecology: Queens’ Cup is a very common flower in the shady, moist, low to mid-elevations forests.
Note: The fruit is a single, bright blue, bead-like berry.
Queen’s Cup Photo Gallery