Clasp twisted stalk

Streptopus amplexifolius, the clasping twisted-stalk or watermelon-berry, is a slender, gracefully arching herbaceous perennial in the family Liliaceae, with a circumboreal distribution across the cool temperate and boreal forests of North America, Europe and Asia, where it grows in moist, shaded, humus-rich understorey of coniferous and mixed woodlands, along streambanks and in subalpine meadows. From a creeping, knotty rhizome rises a smooth, branching stem 40 to 100 centimetres tall, characteristically zig-zagged at the nodes. The alternate, ovate-lanceolate, parallel-veined leaves are 5 to 15 centimetres long, smooth-margined and clasp the stem with cordate auricled bases, giving the species its specific epithet. Solitary or paired bell-shaped flowers about 1 centimetre long hang on slender, sharply kinked or twisted pedicels from beneath the leaves; the six greenish-white to creamy tepals are recurved at their tips. The fruit is an oblong-ellipsoid, juicy, translucent red to orange-red berry 8 to 15 millimetres long, with a faintly sweet, watery, cucumber-like flavour.