BERBERIDACEAE BARBERRY FAMILY 
BLUE COHOSH. PAPOOSE ROOT 
Caulophyllum thalictroides (L.) Michx. 
The Blue Cohosh is one of the few interesting wild flowers 
of this family. It is found in rich woods from New Brunswick 
to South Carolina and west to Manitoba and Missouri. In 
Illinois it occurs commonly 
throughout. 
This is a smooth perennial 
herb with matted and knotty 
underground stems. In early 
spring it sends up a nearly 
naked stem 1-3 feet high, 
which when young is covered 
with a whitish waxy bloom. 
The base is sheathed in large 
bracts and at the top is borne 
1 large, nearly sessile, ternately 
compound leaf. The leaflets 
look much like those of the 
Tall Meadow Rue, page Ioo. 
Usually there is also a smaller, 
twice compound leaf near the 
base of the inflorescence. 
The flowers are produced 
in April and May before the 
leaf has reached full size. 
There are 6 green sepals with 
3 or 4 little bracts at the base, 
6 small glandlike petals and 6 
stamens. The single pistil has a short style and the stigmatic 
surface is on 1 side only. The 2 seeds develop so rapidly that 
soon after flowering they burst the ovary and remain exposed. 
They are borne on stalks about one-quarter inch long and be- 
come as large as peas, turn blue and resemble berries or drupes. 
May is building her house of petal and blade; ~ 
Of the roots of the oak is the flooring made, 
With a carpet of mosses and lichen and clover, 
Each small miracle over and over, 
And tender, travelling green things strayed. 
May is Building Her House—RicHArD LE GALLIENNE 
117 
