The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Mayapple

Podophyllum peltatum, Berberidaceae, the barberry family

The mayapple has only two leaves, large and umbrella-like, and a single nodding flower, white to rose-coloured, in the axil between them; it spreads by rhizomes into dense mats in damp, open woods3. Kew gives its native range as south-eastern Canada to the central and eastern United States2. Its name, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center says, refers to “the May blooming of its apple-blossom-like flower”3. The fruit does not ripen in May5: it is a large, fleshy, lemon-shaped berry, golden yellow when ripe3.

Only that ripe fruit is edible, and it can be made into jelly; the leaves, roots, seeds and unripe fruit are poisonous3,4. Native Americans used the root as a cathartic3.

It has other names: Indian apple, French pomme de mai, and mandrake, wild mandrake or American mandrake3,4,6. The Wildflower Center notes that the name mandrake rightly belongs to an unrelated Old World plant with a similar root3, the mandrake of this guide.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Podophyllum peltatum, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Podophyllum peltatum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "SE. Canada to C. & E. U.S.A.".
  3. Podophyllum peltatum, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin. Supports: the names Mayapple, Indian apple, wild mandrake and pomme de mai; two leaves and one nodding flower; the lemon-shaped berry; mats in damp open woods; the name from "the May blooming of its apple-blossom-like flower"; the poisonous parts, the cathartic root and the edible ripe fruit; mandrake belonging to an unrelated Old World plant; the native distribution and the barberry family.
  4. mayapple, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: the ripe fruit edible, the roots, leaves and seeds poisonous; also called mandrake.
  5. mayapple, Wiktionary. Supports: the fruit not ripening in May.
  6. The Powerful Solanaceae: Mandrake, US Forest Service, Celebrating Wildflowers. Supports: the mayapple also known as American mandrake.