PlantFiles: American Mayapple, Mandrake Root
Podophyllum peltatum

One of the signs of spring here is the mayapples magically popping up almost overnight along the roadsides in wooded areas. The blooms are mostly hidden by the foliage, but that's okay - the foliage is such a fresh, bright green and a welcome sight after winter.

This plant is apparently juglone tolerant and is thriving in fairly dry shade under a black walnut in my yard.

For me this species is rather slow to mulitply or even to flower - it stays in the same spot for at least three to four years for me now. Another house not too far away have it multiply like crazy.

Had the hardest time getting this little gem to thrive, but after 3 years it took off. Truly a native gem.

I have tried for a few years to find the fruit of this plant so I could try it. The animals must love them! I have a few patches growing on my land and I will watch them flower and the fruit begin, but it always disappears before it's ripe.

This plant doesn't seem to be invasive even though it can grow in large colonies and then it dies out early and is gone for most of the summer.

Mayapple did very well in my container garden in the summer/fall of 2005. Consistently produced lovely blooms.

It is an easy-care plant.

I first discovered this plant growing on our property in Preston, CT. It makes a wonderful groundcover where it gets semi-shade. The sunnier the location the earlier it goes dormant, so at least partial shade is important. Under the correct conditions this plant forms dense colonies of overlapping leaves that will shade out other weeds. It is a very effective weed controlling groundcover!

I transplanted a few plants to my small property in Willimantic where it completely filled a difficult location under a maple tree on my property line in about 5 years. I always looked forward to seeing it come up because I knew for sure that Spring had arrived.

When I moved to a 3.5 acre property in Andover 5 years ago I again brought some plants with me and planted them in various locations where I thought they'd be happy and that were in need of this kind of colonizing plant. For some reason they have not prospered. They do come up every year but they are not spreading the way I want them to. I just collected about 30 additional plants from the original Preston location and will try them in some different locations where I hope they will do well.

I really love this native plant and I can't recommend it highly enough. In the proper location it will colonize a large area in a few years. If it goes further than you like it is easy to remove encroaching plants - so while it spreads I would not call it invasive. It's not hard to control at all. The rhizomatus root system runs about 1" under the soil.

Several years back, I would admire these plants
each spring alongside the highway. They seem
like little Brownie umbrellas to me, and gave way for
the imagination to go wild.

To make a long story short, I found a small patch on our
property, transplanted them and waited patiently for
the bloom. I kept my fingers crossed for more the following
year.

Fast forward to 2003. Upon walking about our property
in early spring, I happened upon the largest patch of
Mandrake I'd ever seen, right there in our own back
yard so to speak, and I never even knew they were
there!

What a sight! It looked like something out of a movie, so
lush, so green, so shiny!

I can't wait until this spring, where I will sneak in a
visit to my own little Brownie Patch in the back yard
and a picture for Dave's Garden to boot.

Large patches of this plant grow in the steeply ridged woods behind my son's house in Coweta County, Georgia, about 40 miles Southwest of Atlanta. Of course before his subdivision was bulldozed in, I'm sure they grew on his property too, as that whole ridge is second growth oaks, hickory, and some tulip poplar, with mainly dogwoods and black gums as understory. This ridge falls down to a boulder strewn rushing creek that goes pretty rapidly through a steep drop at this point, and while I was living there it was always fun to walk the dogs through the deer paths in these woods and look at all of the various wild flowers. These plants grew in the sunniest part of the woods, I noticed, and weren't found in the really steep, densely shaded parts.

Member of the barberry family; they grow wild in patches over a wide area of the eastern US and Canada. They spear up through leaves, etc early in the spring and spread a canopy 12-18" high and 8-16" wide. Shoots with a single canopy have no flower; ones with a dual canopy will develop a flower. They mostly spread by thick, deep rhizome and form patches.

It makes a good groundcover for the early part of the year; at least in this area of PA it tends to disappear by mid-summer when the fruit ripens - around July to September, depending on location. Also it appears vulnerable to an orange rust fungus. It does not need direct sunlight though it tolerates it. Once established it spreads readily.

As stated, they are very poisonous in general (potentially fatally so). They are not "true" mandrake, which is a European plant of the nightshade family. The fruit is edible (though the seeds are poisonous) and is considered by some to be a delicacy, but apparently it has a significant laxative effect. Supposedly it tastes lemony or somewhat like a "paw-paw" (Asimina triloba). When ripe it is a pale yellowy color. Recipes for it can be found in wild edible plant books; it can be eaten raw or made into pies, jellies or preserves; and it also can be juiced.

Native Americans used the plant medicinally. Warning: apparently a few people get dermatitis after handling the rootstock.

There are about 10 species of the mayapple throughout North America. The fruits are edible and taste like lemon. The rest of the plant is highly toxic. The rhizomes contain a cancer fighting substance and is listed in the US Pharmacopeia but it is way too intense for do-it-yourselfers
Please don't try it at home.

A single stem with 2 leaves per plant. Directly between the two leaf nodes a flower will appear, leaving behind a mayapple fruit.

Grows usually in wooded areas to a height of 12 to 18 inches tall. The flower is white and blooms in April.