Plant Of The Week: Mayapple
Kai Goldstein | April 15, 2025
Mayapple || Podophyllum peltatum
A colony of small umbrellas seizes the air together, conquering the forest floor. This is one way to describe the beauty of mayapples coming up around this time of spring. Their unfurled leaves shoot up like dinosaurs hatching from eggs. Some shoots reveal one leaf as they open, while others fork into two. A flower is often born from this fork in the stems with two leaves; it is just one flower. This single flower, if pollinated, will mature into a single fruit, turning yellow and edible in late summer. All other parts of the plant at all other times of the year are toxic. Some indigenous peoples worked with the toxic root of the plant as a natural substitute for pesticide on crops. But only the ripe fruit’s flesh can be eaten by humans, and that is if the other wild inhabitants of the forest do not find it first. Box turtles, chipmunks and deer find it particularly tasty. Some claim that the fruit tastes significantly better when ripened fully on the plant than when picked early and left to ripen on its own. Either way, keep in mind the teachings of the honorable harvest if hunting for these berries in late summer. Much like the lemon it resembles, the mayapple is also botanically classified as a berry. Their distinct colonies can be found in partly shaded woodlands with rich, moist soil.
