Maianthemum racemosum (L.) Link

Plants terrestrial, to 12.5 cm. Rhizomes sympodial, cylindrical, units 30–40 cm × 8–14 mm, sometimes multiplied, roots scattered. Stems erect or arching, 7.5–12.5 dm × 7–9 mm. Leaves 7–12, sessile and clasping, or petiolate; blade elliptic to ovate, 9–17 × 5–8 cm; base rounded or tapered; apex acute or caudate. Inflorescences paniculate, 70–250-flowered, branches well developed, pyramidal. Flowers 3-merous; tepals inconspicuous, 0.5–1 × 0.5 mm; filaments 1 × 0.5 mm; anthers 0.5–1 mm; ovary globose, 1 mm wide; style 0.1–0.3 mm; stigma obscure; pedicel 0.5–1 × 0.5 mm. Berries green with copper spots when young, maturing to deep translucent red, globose or 3-lobed, 4–6 mm wide. Seeds 1–4, globose, 2.5–4 mm. 2n = 36, 72, 144.

Deciduous woodlands, persisting along shaded roadsides and urban and suburban wooded tracts; at elevations up to 700 metres. Moist coniferous and deciduous woods, clearings and bluffs, preferring shaded streamsides.

The ripe fruit are eaten. They are eaten raw, cooked or made into jellies and sauces. They should be cooked to remove purgative elements. They can be dried. The juice is mixed with other juices as a drink. The young shoots are eaten like asparagus. The young leafy shoots are cooked as a flavouring for meat. The rootstock are dried, soaked in lye, then parboiled and eaten. They can be pickled.

It can be grown from seeds or division of the clump.