Virginia Bunchflower
Melanthium virginicum
In the Carolinas and Georgia, found in pine savannas, bogs, fens, seeps, wet seepage-fed forests. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition What its natural habitat tells you
Native to Arkansas. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 88%
- Height
- 3–5 feet
- Spread
- 1–2 feet
- Light
- Partial shade, Full shade, Full sun
- Soil moisture
- Moist to wet
Space about 1.5 ft apart from its recorded spread, about 44 per 100 sq ft. Enter your bed size for a count
Will it fit your yard?
Rare or protected plant. Specialist conservation planting; excluded from routine garden suggestions. Plant caution source
Hidden from default planting suggestions. Wildlife value and native status remain unchanged.
At a glance
- Bloom
- May to August
- Fruiting season
- August to October
Not yet recorded · Life cycle · Leaves
Recorded in 8 Arkansas counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.
Forest or woodland where the source does not say how moist or dry.
Who uses this plant?
3CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including AR
Genus host records with ranges including AR · Veratrum
- Feltia jaculiferaDingy Cutworm
- Xestia c-nigrumSpotted Cut-Worm, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Lesser Black-letter Dart
- Xestia smithiiSmith's Dart
6BeesSoutheastern regional records
Southeastern regional records · Melanthium
Individual names are not available yet.
Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0Beetles 4
- Centrinites strigicollis
- Mordella melaena
- Photinus pyralis
- Trichius piger
Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA
Flies 8
- Archytas aterrima
- Calythea albicincta
- Cistogaster occidua
- Musca domestica
- Paradidyma singularis
- Sphaerophoria cylindrica
- Stratiomyia meigenii
- Trichopoda pennipes
Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA
Other wasps 1
- Ammobia ichneumonea
Flower visits · Carlinville, Illinois, USA
No records yet · Ants · Adult butterflies / moths · Other insects
Plant details
- Family
- Melanthiaceae
- Hardiness
- Zones 4–8
- Fruit begins
- August
- Fruit ends
- October
Growing sources and scope
- Bloom · “May to August” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition · Carolinas and Georgia
- Fruit begins · “August” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition · Carolinas and Georgia
- Fruit ends · “October” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition · Carolinas and Georgia
- Hardiness · “Zones 4–8” · Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder
- Height · “3–5 feet” · Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder
- Light · “Partial shade; Full shade; Full sun (documented habitat)” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition · Carolinas and Georgia
- Soil · “Moist; Wet (documented habitat)” · Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Carolinas & Georgia edition · Carolinas and Georgia
- Spread · “1–2 feet” · Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder
Also known as
Bog Bunchflower; Veratrum virginicum; Virginia Bunch Flower; false hellebore; false-hellebore
Conservation status
| Arkansas rank | S2 |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G5 |
| AR status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Sources
- Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas (2013)
- USDA PLANTS
- Vascular Plants of North Carolina (NC Natural Heritage Program)
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- NatureServe Explorer
- Arkansas occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications

