In late summer a myriad of 4 to 6 inch (10-15 cm) flower stalks appear with buds quickly developing and blooming August to October.
The flowers are rose pink with a purple-magenta V-shaped blotch at the base of each petal. There is also the occasional white flowered form appearing, which is now common in cultivation, but rare in the wild. White forms will almost always come true from seed if the parent plants are isolated from the pink ones.
Leaves appear following bloom. The flowers fade and the flower stem falls down and disappears under the new foliage. The large attractive leaves are glossy and vary considerably from plant to plant,
they can be round, oval, or pointed with wavy, serrated, or smooth edges.
Leaf color can vary also, from a dark to light green, with fractal-like marbling of silver and white. The leaves remain through the winter and spring until May or June.
As hotter months begin, the leaves shrink and dry up, the flower stems are once again exposed. They are like tightly wound springs coiled 1/2 inch (12mm) in diameter with a round, marble-size, seed capsule at the end.
The capsules mature and crack open to release their seeds by July. Ants will carry away some of the seeds, as they are covered with a sticky substance that they harvest, while the rest may fall about the mother corm. C. hederifolium spreads and self sows quite readily and after a number of years a colony will develop .
Each year the tuber or corm grows and expands. Left undisturbed for a number of years they can become quite large, over 12 inches (30cm) in diameter. The dormant period is during the summer months and all sign of them becomes invisible. The ground where they lay is now bare. Be careful where you dig!
