Maianthemum is a genus of about 30 species of rhizomatous

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

 herbaceous

Herbaceous plant

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 plants

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 native to the understory

Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

 of woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

s in North

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, northern Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, northern and eastern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, and the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

. In the APG III classification system

APG III system

The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy...

, it is placed in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Asparagaceae

Asparagaceae

Asparagaceae is the botanical name of a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots.In earlier classification systems, the species involved were often treated as belonging to the family Liliaceae...

, subfamily Nolinoideae (formerly the family Ruscaceae).

Flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s have six tepal

Tepal

Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...

s, reduced to four in M. canadense, M. bifolium and M. dilatatum.

Because of genetic similarity, similar fruits, and evidence that the 4-tepal species evolved from a 6-tepal species, the genus Smilacina was combined with Maianthemum in the late 20th century.

Like many lilioid monocot

Lilioid monocot

Lilioid monocots or lilioids is an informal name used for a grade of five monocot orders in which the majority of species have flowers with relatively large, coloured tepals, broadly similar to those of lilies...

s, both Maianthemum and Smilacina were formerly included in the family Liliaceae

Liliaceae

The Liliaceae, or the lily family, is a family of monocotyledons in the order Liliales. Plants in this family have linear leaves, mostly with parallel veins but with several having net venation , and flower arranged in threes. Several have bulbs, while others have rhizomes...

. The genus has also been placed in the former family Convallariaceae.

Species

Species include:

Maianthemum atropurpureum Maianthemum bifolium Maianthemum bifolium Maianthemum bifolium is often a localized common rhizomatous flowering plant, native from western Europe east to Siberia, China and Japan.... May Lily Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum canadense Maianthemum canadense (Canadian May-lily, Canada Mayflower, False Lily-of-the-valley, Canadian Lily-of-the-valley, Wild Lily-of-the-valley, Two-leaved Solomonseal; syn. Maianthemum canadense var. interius Fern., Maianthemum canadense var... Canada Mayflower, False Lily-of-the-valley Maianthemum dahuricum Maianthemum dilatatum Maianthemum dilatatum Maianthemum dilatatum is a common rhizomatous perennial flowering plant that is native to western North America from northern California to the Aleutian islands, and Asia across the Kamchatka Peninsula, Japan, and Korea... Snakeberry, Wild Lily-of-the-valley Maianthemum forrestii Maianthemum formosanum Maianthemum fusciduliflorum Maianthemum fuscum Maianthemum gongshanense Maianthemum henryi Maianthemum japonicum

Maianthemum lichiangense Maianthemum nanchuanense Maianthemum oleraceum Maianthemum purpureum Maianthemum racemosum Maianthemum racemosum Maianthemum racemosum is a species of flowering plant, native to North America.... False Solomon's-seal Maianthemum stellatum Maianthemum stellatum Maianthemum stellatum is a species of flowering plant, native across North America generally from Alaska to California in the west and from Newfoundland to the central Appalachian Mountains in the east... Starry Solomon's-seal Maianthemum stenolobum Maianthemum szechuanicum Maianthemum tatsienense (orthographic variant M. tatsiense) Maianthemum trifolium Maianthemum trifolium Maianthemum trifolium is a species of flowering plant that is native to Canada and the northeastern United States, from Yukon and British Columbia east to Newfoundland and south to Delaware.It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 25 cm tall, with alternate,... Three-leaf Solomon's-seal, False Mayflower Maianthemum tubiferum