Photo © 2005 by Ruby Jung. All rights reserved

Mayapples

Mayapples are those small, umbrella-like plants that appear in patches in nearly every woodland in our area. For those who are fans of this odd little fruit, well, theyripen in May (what a surprise!).

But make sure they're ripe since the unripe fruit (like the rest of the plant) is extremely toxic if eaten. Ripe Mayapples are soft, yellowish and have a cloyingly sweet smell. As fruit goes they're fair to good, and reputedly make a passable jelly. However I've noted that people who go to the trouble of making Mayapple jelly do so only once.

Mayapples are one of the numerous species of woodland plants who reproduce principally by forming clonal mats - colonies of genetically identical plants sharing a common rootstock. As such they can be likened to small trees who are too lazy to build a trunk, preferring instead to spread across the surface of the forest floor.

Mayapples, as mentioned earlier, are extremely toxic if ingested - which explains why they're one of the last plants to disappear when livestock are allowed to graze in a woodland. They also appear to contain carcinogens. At last report some of their compounds were being investigated for anti-tumor properties in the search for anti-cancer drugs.

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