Mayapple

Description:

Herbaceous perennial plant in the family Berberidaceae. The stems grow to 30–40 cm tall, with 2 or occasionally 3 palmately lobed leaves up to 20–30 cm diameter with 5-9 deeply cut lobes on reproductive individuals, or one peltate (umbrella-like) leaf on sterile individuals. The single secund white flower 3–5 cm diameter, with six (rarely up to nine) petals, is produced at the axil of the two leaves (the upper two in a three-leaved plant); the flower matures into a yellow-greenish fruit 2–5 cm long. Like many other spring ephemerals, it emerges from below ground before the canopy of the forest opens, and then slowly withers later in the summer.

Habitat:

Native to deciduous forests in of eastern North America. The plant is widespread and appears in clonal colonies in open mesic woodlands. Spotted growing along the trail at the Allatoona Battlefield Pass.

Notes:

It has been used by American Indians as an emetic, cathartic, and antihelmintic agent. They also boiled the poisonous root, and used the water to cure stomach aches.[11] The rhizome of the mayapple has been used for a variety of medicinal purposes, originally by indigenous inhabitants and later by other settlers.[3] It is also used topically for warts, and two of its derivatives, etoposide and teniposide, have shown promise in treating some malignant neoplasms.The ripened fruit is edible in moderate amounts, though when consumed in large amounts the fruit is poisonous. The rhizome, foliage and roots are also poisonous.[9] Mayapple contains podophyllotoxin,[10] which is used as a cytostatic and topically in the treatment of viral and genital warts.