RANUNCULACEAE CROWFOOT FAMILY 
WHITE BANEBERRY. WHITE COHOSH 
Actea alba (L.) Mill. 
The White Baneberry or White Cohosh has a more striking 
appearance in fruit in September than in bloom from late April 
to early June, but it is to be considered among our common 
spring flowers. It is found 
in woods from Nova Scotia 
to Georgia and west to 
Minnesota and Missouri. 
The underground stem 
is perennial. The upper 
part of the plant is bushy gé 
and 1-3 feet high. The § 
upper leaves may be sessile & 
and the lower are large, 
petioled and 2 or 3 times 
ternate. The leaflets are 
sharply cleft and toothed. 
The white flowers are 
produced in a short and 
thick terminal raceme. The 
4 or 5 sepals fall off as the 
flower opens, exposing the 
4-10 small narrow petals. 
The numerous stamens have 
slender filaments. There is 
1 pistil consisting of an 
ovary and a broad sessile 
stigma. The fruit is a 
white poisonous berry on 
a stout red pedicel. It is these red pedicels and white berries 
that make the plant so conspicuous in autumn. 
The Red Baneberry, Actea rubra (Ait.) Willd., is also found in 
Illinois woods but is less common. The leaves of this species are 
somewhat less sharply toothed, and it is easily recognized in fruit 
because the berries are red and the pedicels are siender. These fruits 
are very poisonous. 
Continuous as the stars that shine 
And twinkle on the Milky Way, 
They stretched in never ending line 
Along the margins of the bay: 
Ten thousand saw I, at a glance, 
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 
Daffodils—WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 
111 
