Mayapple Root Podophyllum peltatum

LATIN NAME: Podophyllum peltatum

COMMON NAME: Mayapple

Mayapple is the fine, umbrella-leaved plant of the eastern woodlands, and its single, great, round, deeply lobed umbrella of a leaf has made it a familiar of the spring woods for a very long time. The low, spreading plant carries the long, slender stems and the great, round, deeply lobed leaves, and the single, nodding, white, cup-shaped flower opens below the leaves in the late spring, to be followed by the large, lemon-yellow, oval fruit. The plant has a long and careful record in the traditional practice of the region, and the roots are well studied. It is a fine, easy plant of the cool, moist, shaded woodland garden.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

Mayapple has a well-documented place in the plant science, and the roots and the rhizomes have been studied for a long time for their place in the traditional practice of the region. The chemistry of the plant, which has a very long record of use, has been studied closely, and it keeps showing up in the work on the woodland plants and the traditional remedies of the eastern woods. The great, umbrella-like leaves and the nodding, white flower have also made it a fine garden plant, and it is a regular subject of the studies of the spring ephemerals and the woodland perennials.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

Mayapple is grown for the fine, umbrella-like leaves and the nodding, white flower. The great, round, deeply lobed leaves make a bold, handsome ground cover of the spring woodland, and the lemon-yellow fruit is a fine food for the wildlife of the woods. The roots have a long and careful record in the traditional practice of the region, and the plant has been written about in the botanical and the herbal papers for its long history of use. The whole plant is best admired in the garden and left for the wildlife, and it is a fine, easy plant of the cool, moist, shaded woodland garden.

Mayapple is a fine, bold plant of the spring woodland, and the great, umbrella-like leaves make a handsome ground cover of the shaded, leafy ground. The lemon-yellow fruit is a fine food for the wildlife of the woods, and the plant is best admired and left in place.

In the right spot the mayapple is a fine, dependable, long-lived plant of the woodland, and it asks for very little beyond the cool, moist, leafy shade. The great, umbrella-like leaves make a bold, handsome ground cover of the spring woods.

To grow the mayapple from seed, store the seeds in a jar of damp sand in the fridge for a few weeks, then sow them at a shallow depth in pots of moist, leafy soil, keep them in a cool, shaded spot and water gently. The seedlings make their way up in their own time and grow on slowly, so be patient with them. With a cool, moist, shaded spot and the deep, leafy soil, the great, umbrella-like leaves will be there in a few seasons.

(Podophyllum peltatum) The stems grow to 30-40 cm tall, with palmately lobed leaves up to 20-30 cm diameter with 5-9 deeply cut lobes. Young or weakened plants produce a single radial (umbrella-like) leaf and do not flower, while mature plants produce two (rarely three) palmate leaves and a single white flower 3-5 cm diameter with six (rarely up to nine) petals; the flower matures into a yellow-greenish fruit 2-5 cm long. The plant appears in colonies in open woodlands. Individual shoots are often connected by systems of thick tubers and rhizomes.

Despite the common name mayapple , it is the flower that appears in early May, not the "apple", which appears later during the summer. The mayapple is also called the hogapple, Indian apple, mayflower, umbrella plant (shape of the leaves), wild lemon (flavor of the fruit), wild mandrake, American mandrake (shape of rhizomes) or "devil's apple .