Solomon's seal, Polygonatum commutatum (Liliaceae) First four photos: Rock Island Trail Kickapoo Creek Access, Dunlap IL 5/31/15. Last photo: St. Mary's Cemetery, West Peoria IL 5/29/15. A native Illinoisan of the lily family, Solomon's seal blooms in late spring to early summer. The stem is unbranched, and the leaves are alternate and ovate, with parallel venation. Flowers are pale green to nearly white, and hang from the axils of the leaves. The flowers are replaced by berries that begin green and become blue as they ripen. It grows kind of low and hangs over, so if you spot one you may need to lift the plant to see the flower situation underneath. But enough facts. Solomon's seal is the classiest goddamn plant! I'm not being facetious; just look at it. It is refined and spare, lovely and reserved. It doesn't actually care if you don't see its flowers, it expects you to be canny enough to know and find them yourself. It's not trying to put itself out there like some kind of specious-ass, relentlessly average yellow/white aster. (I believe I've spoken previously about the asters?) It is the Grace Kelly* of wildflowers. Let us all take a moment to behold its effortless elegance, and consider the ways in which each of us in our own lives can be more like this plant which I have here anthropomorphized beyond all measure. * The question, I suppose, that naturally follows is, who does this make the asters? And the answer is quite clearly Jayne Mansfield.