Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

© 2004 by CRC Press
530 Florida Ethnobotany
kvpotoyv [’kvpotoyv, kvpolóye](kvpoteyetv, something
to put on the head, Creek)
[ground, wild] lemon; yellow-berry
Maiapfel (May apple, German); May-apple
[American, common, mayapple] (Catesby called
the herbs May Apple in 1731, although the OED
1971 says the name dates from Philip Miller in
1733 as Pomum Maiale, May apple; either way
Catesby found it in local use in the Carolinas by
the 1720s); pomme de mai (May apple, Quebec)
[American, wild] mandrake[-pear] (pear-like fruits,
compared with Mandragora officinarum, New
Jersey)
mäskätámîn utcípa (mäskätá, defecation, mîn,
berry, utcípa, root, Menomini); maskiíchtew
[masgichteu] (maashk, defecating, kiich, causes,
Delaware)
maypop (a name usually applied to Passiflora,
Virginia)
parasols (an allusion to the leaves, Ohio); umbrella
plant [root] (Virginia)
podophylle (French)
Puck’s foot (‘‘Puck,’’ from Old English púca, Old
Norse, púki, Welsh, pwca, Irish púca, a mischievous
demon; it is not clear if the word is of
Teutonic or Celtic origin, but it was in English
by about A.D. 1000; Middle English the pouke
was identified with the devil; from the 16th
century, as Puck, a tricky goblin or sprite; also
called Robin Goodfellow, Hobgoblin; all three
were used by Shakespeare in 1590)
raccoon berry (from ärä’kun, for Procyon lotor,
Virginia Algonquian; in use by 1884)
vegetable-calomel (‘‘calomel,’’ from Greek calos,
beautiful, melos, black or from Ethiopian calos,
beautiful, melos, black, because white or pale
bodies rubbed with it become black; mercurous
chloride [Hg 2Cl2] ormercurius dubius; used as a
laxative in medicine from 1676)
vegetable-mercury (the same allusion as ‘‘calomel’’)
wild jalap (‘‘jalap,’’ from xalli, sand, atl, water, pan,
upon, Náhuatl, used to identify the city as
Xalapa and, in this context, Ipomoea purga, by
1675)
When I was still a child, I was told that there were
‘‘male’’ and ‘‘female’’ plants of May apples. They were
easy to tell apart, because the ‘‘male’’ had a single
leafstalk, and the ‘‘female’’ had a branched leafstalk
with a leaf on each branch. Moreover, the ‘‘female’’
had flowers in the place where the stalks split into two.
I was skeptical. I planted some near my home. Each
rhizome node (joint) bore a single leaf*/which was
unbranched one year and branched the next. So much
for male and female plants.
The first record Linnaeus had of these plants was
in German physician Christian Mentzel’s (1622 /1701)
book of 1682, the Pinax, where he called them
Aconitifolia humilis, flore albo unico campanulato,
fructu cynosbati (A weak herb with leaves like
Monk’s-hood, a single, bell-shaped, white flower, a
fruit like a dog briar). Mark Catesby (1731 /1732)
called the plants Anapodophyllum canandense (duck
foot leaf from Canada). Thankfully, Linnaeus shortened
the name to Podophyllum in his Hortus Cliffortianus
of 1738. Catesby added that, because the herb
flowers in May, the local residents in South Carolina
called it ‘‘May apple.’’
Podophyllum has two species (Mabberley 1997).
Podophyllum peltatum is endemic to the eastern
United States and ranges from Florida to Quebec
and Ontario in Canada, and west to Minnesota and
eastern Texas (Fernald 1950, Correll and Johnston
1970, Diggs et al. 1999). The other species, P.
hexandrum, grows from the Himalayas to eastern
Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India,
and China (Hsu 1986, Hocking 1997).
Fernald et al. (1958) noted that the fruits are
relished by most individuals when fresh, although
Harvard guru Asa Gray (1810 /1888) was the exception.
Gray wrote that the fruit was ‘‘mawkish, eaten by
pigs and boys.’’ Although the taste is ‘‘peculiar,’’ as
Fernald et al. (1958) described it, the flavor is agreeable.
Native people in the Americas concurred. At
least the Cherokee, Delaware, Iroquois, Menomini,
Meskwaki, Osage, Penobscot, and Ojibwa ate the
fruits fresh, cooked, or mashed and made into small
cakes that were dried for future use (Hunter [1823]
1973, Yanovsky 1936, Vogel 1970, King 1984, Moerman
1998). As needed, the cakes were soaked in warm
water, cooked as a sauce, or mixed with corn bread.
There are accounts of indigenous people committing
suicide by eating the root of May-apple (Vogel
1970). Because the roots are purgative, emetic, and
irritating, that would be an excruciating way to die,
although Benjamin S. Barton wrote in 1810 that the
root was ‘‘possessed of some degree of an anodyne, or
narcotic quality.’’
The Cherokee used Podophyllum to treat intestinal
worms, rheumatism, ulcers, and sores, as a laxative,
and dropped in the ears ‘‘to restore hearing’’ (Hamel
and Chiltoskey 1975). The Choctaw treated biliousness
with the root (Swanton 1931). The Delaware used
the herb as a laxative and spring tonic (Moerman
1998). The Iroquois used it as a strong physic, to treat
boils, as a laxative, and as a poison to soak corn seeds
in before planting. The Menomini also used it to kill
insects on cultivated plants (Mahr 1955a). The Mesk-