Unlike many highly bred horticultural plants, British Columbia's native plants usually require little maintenance. This makes them very suitable for landscaping purposes, whether on small city lots or over larger areas. Long parallel veins handsomely mark the leaf surface. A creamy white cylinder-shaped flower head rises among the leaf bases at the top of the stem. Flowers appear in May and in cool moist settings they sometimes persist into summer.
Fruits are at first round and pea-like, their green surface dotted with brown patches.
Later they turn red and soft. This species inhabits a wide geographic range which extends along the coast from Alaska to California. In British Columbia it grows mainly along the coast. Maianthemum canadense is an interior species which can be found right across Canada. It occurs widely in moist sites within the coast forest where shrubs do not form a dense canopy.