Scientific Name: Helleborus foetidus
Common Name: stinking hellebore
Family Name: Ranunculaceae
Origin: Europe
Hardiness Zone: Zone 5: (-29 to -23 °C)
Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial
Mature Size: 0.7 - 1.3m x 0.6 - 1.0m (height x width)
Habit: Arching
Form: Mounded
Texture: Medium
Landscape Uses: Attract beneficial insects, Ground cover
Exposure: Part sun/part shade, Filtered shade, Deep shade
Soil or Media: Humus rich, Well-drained
Leaves: Compound, Alternate, Spiraled, Leathery, Palmate venation, Glabrous, Lustrous, Digitate (palmate), Elliptic, Serrate
Flowers: Cyme, Green-yellow, Purple, Mar-Apr
Fruit: Aggregate fruit, Follicle, Green, Jul-Aug
Key ID Features:
Leaves evergreen glossy, blade rounded but deeply lobed or divided into 7-10 linear and serrate leaflets, pungent when crushed, petioles upright, thick and succulent; flowers drooping, cup-shaped, yellowish-green often with a purple edge to the five petal-like sepals in spring; fruit is an aggregate of 3(-5) wrinkled follicles.