Maianthemum bifolium is often a localized common 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...

 flowering plant

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 from western 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...

 east to Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Non-flowering stems usually have only one waxy leaf

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

, but on flowering plants there is one basal leaf that withers away before flowering, and two stem leaves produced alternately up the 10-20 cm tall stems, which are topped off with many star shaped white flowers. The leaves are heart to triangular, 3-8 cm long and 2-5 cm broad, with small fine hairs on the veins. The 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 4 tepals, 4 stamens and have 2 chambers in the pistil; flowering is in mid spring to early summer. This species, along with 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...

and 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...

are the only 4-tepaled species. One to two seeds are produced in round berries that are speckled red when immature and redden with age. This species is found in the wild growing in open forests and on damp soils in grassy ditches and thickets.