An Iowa Garden

One of the oddities popping up in our garden this April is this little cutey, which looks for all the world like a little hosta, with a light green leaf with a lighter green edge... it's actually Maianthemum dilatatum Baby Moon. While this plant is a visitor from far away, two fellow members of its genus grow in our woods, though they are newcomers to the genus... if that seems confusing, let me explain.
Maianthemum is a genus which (now) has about thirty species; it was recently expanded by the addition of the members of the former genus, smilacina... the false Solomon's seals. We have two false Solomon's seals native here; M. (formerly Smilacina) racemosum, the false Solomon's seal, and M. stellatum, called starry Solomon's seal, or Solomon's plume.
Maianthemum literally means May flower, and one of its members, M. canadense is the Canadian mayflower. All the members of this genus are rhizomatous, tending to be at least creeping, and in some cases clustering, plants. M. dilatatum (dilatatum connotes broad, referring to the broad leaf) is native roughly to coastal wet conifer (mainly spruce) forests around the north Pacific; the PNW U.S. to Alaska and around to Siberia and Japan. In the PNW it is often called wild or false lily of the valley. M. dilatatum Baby Moon has smaller, rounder leaves with the creamy edge. The species is quite invasive, much like true lily of the valley (which is in a different genus), and will choke out other plants, forming a dense groundcover, which is however, quite attractive. I get the impression (I've not had this plant long) that Baby Moon is a smaller, more creepy plant... but it's already moving in on a small wood anemone (which doesn't look too comfortable about the situation). Just to be on the safe side, Baby Moon is getting a spot of its own. It will have small plumes of white flowers, with red berries in the fall.
I will say that the leaves of this plant are just way cool; perhaps you can tell from the picture that they are very thick and waxy, with a very bright green center with a creamy edge.