In late June the spring flowers are gone and summer flowers haven’t bloomed yet.  I find it hard to identify plants without flowers but this one was rather easy.

The leaves are perfoliate and alternate on the stem.  The six-sided fruit indicates the flower had six parts. The fruit stem pierces the leaf.

Here’s a plant with these characteristics. Large-flowered bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) has six petals and the stems pierce the leaves.

In late June bellwort fruit is still puffy looking.  Eventually it will shrink into three lobes.  Click here to see.

Right now the fruit is in transition.

(photos by Kate St. John)