Pachysandra, Pachysandra terminalis, is a ground cover native to China. It's really easy to grow in moist shady soil. My father once took pulled up plants his neighbor was weeding out and simply tossed them on the leaf-covered ground then threw some composted dirt on top and they did beautifully.
The flowers above are closed, but even open they look very much like this. Nearly all the flowers are male only, there are generally a few female flowers at the bottom of the spike. Bees generally work a spike (raceme) of flowers from bottom to top then fly to the bottom of the next, so this set-up helps ensure that pollen from another plant will reach the female flowers.
Pachysandra is related to Box, an easy-to- shape shrub often used for topiary and hedges. The family is very small, and doesn't seem to be closely related to other plant families, though sometimes it is classified with the Magnolias.
The leaves do not really have stems; they simply taper to almost nothing where they attach to the woody stem of the plant.
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