Low to short hairless, often patch forming plant with erect stems. It has four leaves in a single whorl halfway up the stem. Flowers, solitary, erect yellowish green and starry, four to six parted the sepals lanceolate pointed, the petals thread like with stamens prominent. The fruit is a berry-like capsule, black when ripe and splitting to reveal bright red seeds.

Indicator Species - Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

Woodland and damp shady habitats.

Late April to June

Perennial

Widespread but local in Britain.

Uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 12 of the 617 tetrads.