Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, is a plant that can both help and hurt you. The fruit is only edible when ripe otherwise it can rip your stomach to pieces. Most of the plant is considered poisonous with a few reported cases of fatalities. Medicinally, it has been used to expel worms, as a purgative meaning strong laxative, for rheumatism, as an emetic and finally it was used as an insecticide.

Mayapple Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Brill, Steve. Wild Edibles Plus. Computer Software. WinterRoot LLC. Version 1.5. 2012. Web. Feb. 15, 2014.

Culpeper, M.D., Nicholas. Culpeper Color Herbal. Ed. David Potterton. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 1983. Print. pg. 119

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 2. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 1528-1532

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 52-54

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 44

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 93, 126-127

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 420

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 354-355

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 20-21

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.