Native plants for a Cape Cod garden

Nodding mandarin is another interesting native neighbor (meaning it does not occur naturally in Massachusetts – it is found in a few eastern states from Michigan down to Georgia). This member of the Lily family displays strongly veined light green leaves – it is somewhat similar to Uvularia grandiflora from afar. The flowers are beautiful, mostly white with purple spots and streaks, but like Uvularia sp. the bell shaped flowers are obscured by the leaves. The straw colored fruit isn’t much more noticable, but those appear later in the summer. Nodding mandarin does well in moist, acid to neutral soils in shade to partial shade, so it’s a natural for the Cape Cod woodland garden. Over time it will establish new growth on rhizomes. The colonies are not as dense as Prosarta languinosum (yellow fairybells).