I have several large Veratrum (melanthium) virginicum in bloom now, and I will testify that the smell is pronounced and unpleasant. I'd describe it as stale urine. but why quibble about barnyard odors, eh? Whatever it is, it's far-reaching and unattractive. The flowers, however, are glorious to look at. Ellen On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 6:24 PM, aaron floden <aaron_floden@yahoo.com>wrote: > Is that correctly identified? It looks suspiciously like virginicum which > should be flowering now and is too early for latifolium which is not yet in > flower here yet in the wild. > I have smelled parviflorum and woodii as well and they have distinctly > putrid marine water smell. Your description of the fragance is much how I > would describe for virginicum; cloyingly sweet, but with undertones of > urine and cow dung with a tendency to produce mild headaches. > > Aaron > E Tennessee > > > > > ________________________________ > From: Mark McDonough <antennaria@charter.net> > To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 9:32 AM > Subject: Re: [pbs] Bulbs for Shade > > > A potential plant to consider for shade is Melanthium latifolium, the > Slender Bunchflower, found growing in "dry, rocky, wooded slopes" in a > limited north to south distribution in Eastern USA. It is pictured and > discussed in more detail on NARGS Forum: > https://nargs.org/forum/melanthium-bunchflower/ > > Mark McDonough > USDA Zone 5 > Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border, USA > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > -- Ellen Hornig 212 Grafton St Shrewsbury MA 01545 508-925-5147