Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) emerges in early spring. It is also known as American Mandrake, the English version has been known to scream when pulled out of the ground, driving a person insane before it kills them ~ remember the scene in Harry Potter?

No worries, the American Mandrake does not exhibit this behavior.

When Mayapple first emerges, it looks more like a dark green mushroom with a spiral cap than a plant.

Emerging Mayapple

As the leaf starts to unfold it looks like a wonderful beach umbrella for faeries. Some call it the witch’s umbrella, but the witches would need to be very small.  Its botanical name Podophyllum peltatum means “foot leaf like a shield,” and once you see the leaf fully opened you can understand why it was given that name.

On one of my most recent hikes, I noticed that the fruits seemed to only develop on plants that had twin-leaves.  The fruits hung between the two leaves. I could not find any fruits hanging from any of the single leaf plants that I looked at.

Fruiting Mayapple

Although, the American plant will not drive you insane, all the parts of the Mayapple plant are quite poisonous, except the very ripe fruit. To give you an idea as how toxic ~ Native Americans used the plant to commit suicide.  So what does a ripe Mayapple look like? First, the unripe Mayapple resembles a lime. When it turns a soft, yellow and wrinkles a little, it is ripe. The rest of the plant is also often dying at that time as well. If you are adventurous, trim off the ends, and just eat the pulp of the fruit and remember, do not eat the seeds. I am a forager but not that adventurous, I tend to stay away from eating things that could kill me, therefore have never eaten the fruit of the Mayapple. Besides, I have never come across a very ripe fruit on my hikes. Most of the critters get them the moment they are ripe and there aren’t any left for the truly adventurous foragers.

Besides being deadly Mayapples have very powerful medicine that’s used in cancer treatment. Two anti-cancer drugs that are made from the Mayapple are etoposide and teniposide. Etoposide is for testicular and small-cell lung cancer, teniposide is used in conditions like brain tumors and infancy leukemia. Therefore, used appropriately Mayapple is deadly to cancer while giving a person a chance to live. It’s a beautiful thing.

All information is shared for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any condition.