Colonial perennial with slender rhizomes emergent from small tubers; stems 8-15 cm, with several scattered scale-lvs 2-8 mm, and near the summit 3-6 elliptic to oval lvs 1.5-4 cm; a few cleistogamous fls usually present at the base; chasmogamous fls 1-4, each on a long pedicel from the very short terminal peduncle, rose-purple to white, 13-19 mm, the cor about equaling the obovate wings; stamens 6; stigma obscurely bilobed; fr suborbicular, 6 mm, notched at the tip; seed with a 3-lobed aril. Moist rich woods; Que. and N.B. to Sask., s. to Conn., N.Y., Wis., and in the mts. to Ga. May, June. (Triclisperma p.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.