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Paris quadrifolia
Also called True lover's knot
Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia) is a woodland perennial from temperate Eurasia, grown for its whorl of four leaves and single flower in shade. It needs cool, moist, shaded, lime-rich conditions and is rarely grown outside woodland gardens.
Paris quadrifolia, the herb Paris or true lover's knot, is a species of flowering plant in the family Melanthiaceae. It occurs in temperate and cool areas throughout Eurasia, from Spain to Yakutia, and from Iceland to Mongolia. It prefers calcareous soils and lives in damp and shady places, especially old established woods and stream banks.
P. quadrifolia is in decline in Europe due to loss of habitat. In Iceland, for example, it is on the red list.
In some patches studied by Ehrlén and Eriksson 1993, the small rodents Clethrionomys glareolus and Apodemus sp. removed up to 80% of the fruits. They are granivorous, consuming most of the seeds but only a small proportion of the fruit's pulp. As some seeds normally escape predation, they also act as seed dispersers.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Paris quadrifolia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
