Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Thursday, July 16, 2020

False Hellebore and Queen’s Cup

Posted today are photographs of two plant-types I captured with my smarter-than-me-phone while on an excursion to the mountains yesterday.

False Hellebore

False hellebore is a striking plant with large, handsomely sculpted leaves.  This plant prefers moist environments and is easily capable of growing to a height of six feet.  Pretty as the plant is, false hellebore is poisonous from head to toe and remains poisonous throughout the growing cycle.


Queen’s Cup

Queen’s cup produces a single but striking white flower.  A member of the lily family, queen’s cup tends to grow in thickly populated and often brushy understories.  I regularly find them in huckleberry patches.  When queen’s cup produce fruit, the result can easily be mistaken for a huckleberry.  I have found a few queen’s cup “berries” in my huckleberry bucket after an earnest picking session.  And, while the queen’s cup fruit is a favorite for grouse, it is considered poisonous to humans.


Queen’s Cup Fruit (Photo: Montana Outdoors)

Mitchell Hegman


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