This woodland plant can be found in the eastern parts of North America. It’s a member of the Lilliaceae (Lily family). When you think you know its identity, please post a comment with the common and scientific names. Include any personal connection you may have with this plant.
Young plant in the spring
Spring flowers hanging below the leaves
Mature plant
Developing fruits and underside of leaves
Mature fruits and dying leaves
ANSWER (subsequently added to this post to facilitate the “search” function for these images): Yellow fairybells (Prosartes lanuginosa)
Solomon’s seal
True Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum biflorum
Yellow Mandarin, Fairy Bells, Yellow Fairybells (Prosartes lanuginosa)
Fairy Bells
Disporum lanuginosum (think it has a new name now?)
Nodding mandarin – Prosartes maculata. I have it in my woodland wildflower notch, but don’t think I’ve ever seen the fruits. It probably came in with something else; I never knew of it till it showed up one spring, but it seems to be thriving. Plants get about a foot-and-a-half tall and spread even wider.
False Solomon?
Joan, you are correct. This is Yellow fairybells which has the current scientific name of Prosartes lanuginosa. As Rebekah noted, the former scientific name was Disporum lanuginosum.
Jane, you were close but this is a different species from the plant you’ve got (Nodding mandarin — Prosartes maculata). By the way, both Prosartes lanuginosa and Prosartes maculata have the same additional common name of Yellow mandarin. That’s why we go for the scientific name when we want to be more accurate.
For those of you who guessed Solomon’s seal and False solomon’s seal, I recommend checking out the post which compares these two plants. You can see the difference in the leaf arrangement, flowers and seeds for this plant (Yellow fairybells) and the two you suggested. http://identifythatplant.com/false-and-true-solomons-seal/