Hooker's Fairy Bell, Prosartes hookeri

About Hooker's Fairy Bell (Prosartes hookeri) 7 Nurseries Carry This Plant

Add to My Plant List

Prosartes hookeri is a North American species of flowering plants in the lily family known by the common names drops of gold and Hooker's fairy bells.
It is native to western North America from Alberta and British Columbia to California to Montana, where it usually grows in shady, damp areas, such as forest understory. Additional populations have been found in the Black Hills of Wyoming and South Dakota as well as in the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan. A typical west coast habitat is in forest floors of California oak woodlands, where common understory flora associates may include Coastal woodfern, Dryopteris arguta; Maidenhair fern, Adiantum jordanii and False Solomon's seal, Maianthemum racemosum.
It is an erect, few-branched perennial herb growing up to a meter tall from a rhizome. Its narrow, fuzzy stems bear wide, oval-shaped, pointed leaves up to 15 centimeters long and hairless to hairy, often with hairs along the edges and on the veins underneath. The inflorescence at the tips of branches produce one to three drooping, hanging flowers which may be hidden in the cover of the large leaves. The flower is bell-shaped with six white to green veiny tepals and six protruding stamens with large anthers. The fruit is an orange to bright red berry just under a centimeter wide.

Plant Description

Plant Type

Perennial herb

Size

2.6 - 3.3 ft tall

Flower Color

White

Flowering Season

Spring

Landscaping Information

Sun

Part Shade

Moisture

Moderate - High

Nurseries

Carried by 7

Soil Drainage

Medium

Soil Description

Prefers average to rich soil

Sunset Zones?

1, 2, 4*, 5*, 6*, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17*

Natural Setting

Site Type

Shady damp areas, woodlands, oak understory

Climate

Annual Precipitation: 19.4" - 154.7", Summer Precipitation: 0.19" - 5.95", Coldest Month: 32.5" - 50.4", Hottest Month: 55.6" - 74.6", Humidity: 0.01" - 21.91", Elevation: 15" - 7078"

Alternative Names

Botanical Names: Disporum hookeri,Prosartes hookeri var. hookeri,Prosartes hookeri var. trachyandra
Common Names: Drops Of Gold, Drops-of-gold, Hooker's Fairy Bells

Print Plant Sign Print Plant Label

Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links: Jepson eFlora Taxon Page CalPhotos Wikipedia Calflora

Hooker's Fairy Bell

Prosartes hookeri

Sign in to your Calscape Account X

Hooker's Fairy BellProsartes hookeri

Sign in to your Calscape Account X

Hooker's Fairy Bell

Prosartes hookeri