True lover's knot

Appearance

''Paris quadrifolia'' has solitary flowers with four or more very narrow greenish filiform petals, green petaloid sepals, eight stamens, and a round purple to red ovary in the center.

The flower is borne above a single whorl of four or more stem leaves. It prefers calcareous soils and lives in damp and shady places, especially old established woods and streamsides.

Each plant only produces one blueberry-like berry, which is poisonous, as are other tissues of the plant. ''Paris quadrifolia'' poisonings are rare, because the plant's solitary berry and its repulsive taste make it difficult to mistake it for a blueberry.

Distribution

It occurs locally in temperate and cool areas throughout Europe and northern Asia from Spain to Yakutia and northern China, but is absent in the wild from the Americas, Africa and the southern hemisphere. In Britain it is more frequently found in the east of the country, but it is uncommon throughout its range.