How to Grow and Care for Colicroots

Sokushin-ran (Aletris spicata) is a flowering plant that is native to China, Japan, and the Philippines, where it grows in a variety of forest and grassland environments. The flowers are usually a green-yellow or creamy white color, sometimes pink-tinged.

White colicroot (Aletris farinosa) is a wildflower that grows across central and eastern North America, characterized by tall stalks of white flower spikes rising high above the rest of the plant. Found in open woods, meadows, and along roadsides, it attracts pollinators and is sometimes used in gardening specifically for that reason.

Yellow colicroot is a beautifully slender flowering plant that is often used as a garden ornamental, but only in moist gardens that provide the plant with similar growing conditions to its native habitats. It attracts various types of bumblebees and butterflies.

Golden colicroot (*Aletris aurea*) is a perennial flowering plant endemic to the southeastern USA. It grows in moist but sunny areas. It is difficult to cultivate, so it's rarely seen in nurseries. Golden colicroot got its name after its small, golden-yellow flowers; the specific Latin epithet "*aurea*" translates as "golden."

It is a perennial herb up to 1 m tall, with a long spike of small, cylindrical flowers. Flowers are usually white or cream-colored with brownish tips on the corolla lobes, the lobes bent inwards to give the flower an overall rounded, ovoid or obovoid (egg-shaped) shape with only a narrow opening at the tip. It is usually pollinated by butterflies.