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Scoliopus bigelovii

Scoliopus bigelovii Torr.

California Fetid Adderstongue, Slink Pod, Brownies

Liliaceae (Lily Family)

Synonym(s):

USDA Symbol: SCBI

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

A neat woodland lily with two, broad, purple-mottled basal leaves and one to four leafless flowering stems. Both the leaves and flowering stems are 4-8 in. long. Each flowering stem bears a single, small, greenish flower with mottled and veined outer sepals and inner, wiry petals. The flowers have a carrion-like odor. After flowering, the erect stems begins to bend to the ground. By maturity, the capsule is laying on the ground and simply decays, releasing its seed. A peculiar little plant with 3-12 leafless, 3-sided stalks, each topped by 1 dull reddish-brown and green flower, growing between 2 basal leaves mottled with maroon patches.

The genus name, from the Greek skolios ("crooked") and pous ("foot"), as well as the common names Slink Lily and Slink Pod, refer to the way the flower stalk bends and sprawls on the ground as the pod matures. The flowers have an unpleasant odor (hence the common name Fetid Adder's-tongue), which is what probably attracts flies as pollinators. The smaller Hall's Fetid Adder's-tongue (S. hallii) grows in western Oregon. Another common name for S. bigelovii is Brownies.