Bluebead Lily

Clintonia borealis

Also known as Corn Lily, Cow Tongue, Straw Lily, Dogberry, Snakeberry

At a glance

Family

Liliaceae (lily family)

Type

Herbaceous woodland perennial

Parts used

Leaves and root, used historically and only for external folk preparations

Size

6 to 16 inches tall, spreading slowly into broad colonies by underground rhizome

Bloom

Late spring to early summer, with small nodding, greenish-yellow, bell-shaped flowers held above the leaves

Habitat

Cool, shaded, moist, acidic woods, often under conifers or mixed hardwoods, across the northeastern United States, the Appalachians, and eastern Canada

Acquisition

Forage

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Naturalizes shaded woodland gardens

Early season pollinator forage

Traditional wound care plant

Marks healthy, undisturbed forest floor

Traditional uses

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Long before it had a Latin name, Bluebead Lily was a familiar sight to the Indigenous peoples of the northern forests, who came to know its two glossy leaves as a sign of rich, undisturbed woodland soil. Among some Algonquian and Iroquoian communities, the leaves were traditionally prepared as a wash or poultice and applied to burns, wounds, and irritated skin, a use recorded by ethnobotanists working with elders who still carried this forest knowledge. The plant never became a kitchen or medicine chest staple the way many of its woodland neighbors did, and much of what is known about it survives as fragments of oral tradition rather than settled practice. Its true fame, then as now, rests less on any cure and more on the startling, china blue berries it offers up each late summer, a color so rare in the northern woods that early botanists and foragers alike gave the plant its common name on sight.

How to grow & use it

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The full apothecary for Bluebead Lily

Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.

✦Remedies & preparations
✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

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From under $6 a month. Free plant identifications always included.

Pairs well with

✦Wild ginger
✦Canada mayflower
✦Trout lily

Choose it when

“For the hushed, mossy corners of the forest floor where a single, impossibly blue berry marks the turning of summer.”

Did you know?

True blue is one of the rarest colors in the plant world, and the berries of Clintonia borealis, ripening to a bright, waxy cobalt each August, are one of the very few truly blue fruits found in eastern North American forests, which is exactly how the plant earned its common name.

Safety

The berries of Clintonia borealis are considered inedible and can cause nausea if eaten, and no part of the plant has established safety for internal use. It can also be confused with other woodland plants, so correct identification is essential before handling it.