BERBERIDACEAE 



BARBERRY FAMILY 



BLUE COHOSH. PAPOOSE ROOT 



Caulopliyllum t/ialictroides (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 

 I large, nearly sessile, ternately 

 compound leaf. The leaflets 

 look much like those of the 

 Tall Meadow Rue, page 100. 

 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 i side only. The 1 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 BuilJi/Kj Her Ilniisc — Richard Le Gallienne 



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