Podophyllum peltatum - Mayapple

🌿RARE WNC Native Plants☂️

Forming delightful colonies filled with umbrella-like foliage, these charming plants grow curiously out of the ground, with 1-2 showy leaves unfurling around the stem. Each unusual plant can form a single fragrant 2-3" white flower under the leaves. When pollinated by bumblebees and other long-tongued bees, they form a single fleshy mayapple, which feed wildlife.

These plants tend to have a burst have activity in spring and then go dormant in the heat of summer. Not too fussy, they thrive in rich, moist to fairly dry, well-draining soil in partial to full shade. They are ideal for naturalizing in woodland or native shade gardens. 

Mayapples are important wildlife plants. Their flowers provide food for various species of native bees, they are host plants to moths (moth caterpillars are excellent baby bird food), and the fruits are enjoyed by wildlife such as turtles and small mammals.

Classified as Critically Imperiled in the outer edges of their range - every Mayapple plant you add to your garden aids in maintaining and conserving these marvelous plants.

They are particularly beautiful when grown with Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa), Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica), Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata, see 2nd photo), Woodland Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum), and more.

Mayapples are deer and rabbit resistant, and can be planted under Black Walnut trees. They are members of the Berberidaceae or Barberry family.

12-18"T x 8-12"W. Under ideal conditions, they will slowly spread via underground rhizomes. Cold hardy to zone 3 (-40F).

Plant Nerd: While Mayapples have a long history of medicinal use, these plants are best left to doctors and advanced herbalists. Mayapples do contain podophyllotoxin, which is an ingredient in some potent prescription medications. The only part of this plant that is technically edible is the fully-ripened fruit - which manages to be bland. Wildlife do love the fruit and will help spread the seeds, so better to leave it for them. 

Sometimes the plants, usually when young, come up with only one leaf. They will not flower that year.

These plants have multiple names, including mayapple, American mandrake, wild mandrake, and ground lemon.

Plant these with Espoma's Biotone to help ensure they do well in your soil. Mayapples love rich soils.