Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

MAY-APPLE

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Podophyllum peltatum L.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 8-20 inches

Family: Berberidaceae - Barberry Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Also Called:

Mandrake.

Stems:

Erect, stout, glabrous.

Leaves:

Large, simple, more or less round, up to 14 inches in diameter, deeply 3- to 9-lobed, attached to stalk at center; single leaf terminal on long stalk or stem terminating in 2 long-stalked leaves.

Inflorescences:

Single flower terminating stem in fork of 2 leaf stalks; single-leaved plants often without flowers.

Flowers:

Nodding, 2 inches wide, on short stalk; sepals 6, petal-like, falling early; petals 6 or 9, egg-shaped, white; stamens twice as many as petals; pistil egg-shaped; stigma broad, sessile.

Fruits:

Berry, fleshy, 1.75 to 2 inches in diameter, yellowish-green to occasionally purplish; seeds numerous.

Habitat:

Low, moist or dry, open woods and thickets.

Distribution:

East 1/4 of Kansas.

Toxicity:

The rhizomes and leaves are poisonous but the ripe fruits are edible.

Forage Value:

May-apple is bitter and generally avoided by livestock.

Uses:

The fruits may be eaten raw, cooked, dried, made into jelly, or the juice mixed with lemonade and sugar as a drink. Native Americans used the rhizomes as a purgative and the juice from the rhizomes as an ear drop to treat deafness. They would boil the plant and sprinkle it on potato plants to kill potato bugs.

Comments:

Forms colonies from creeping rhizomes. Some people find the flowers fragrant while others find them unpleasant.

May-apple flower