Mayapple Natures Wild Treat

Mayapple aka American Mandrake or Ground Lemon is a small perennial plant native to North America. It ranges across most of the eastern United States even into southeastern Canada.

Mayapple plants grow within mostly hardwood forest often in patches which could all be connected to a single central root. Root suckers, as they are called are actually the Mayapples primary way of propagation. It also is spread by seeds but not prolifically. Basically it survives where it is by spreading via root suckers and ensures the species long term survival by animals eating the fruit and spreading the seeds far and wide when they poop out the seeds they have eaten.

The Mayapple looks like little umbrellas growing in the forest. They are usually on a foot or so tall. The first year a Mayapple grows from seed it will have a single umbrella like leaf with no flower and no fruit. The Mayapple is one of the first plants to leaf out in the spring but will die back in the heat of summer.

The second year the plant will branch and have two umbrella-like leaves. The supporting stem will look very much like a wishbone or a typical sling-shot frame. Right at the fork of the supporting stem the plant will produce one white flower that will face downward. The flowers often go unnoticed because they are partially concealed by the umbrella like leaves.

Be careful with this plant as ALL PARTS of the plant are poisonous! Even the unripe fruit! Heck even the ripened fruit if large amounts are consumed!!!

So why is it listed here? Because the RIPE fruit, fruit that has turned completely from green to yellow is a very special treat. But do not eat the seeds and do not eat the rind of the fruit! Only eat the pulp inside of the fruit!!!

Even though most of the plant is poisonous it is included because it is simple enough to avoid the bad parts just as long as you know what to avoid.

Depending on how far North or South you live the plant emerges anywhere from March in the south to as late as May in the North. The fruit will ripen (turns completely yellow) at the end of its growing season just after the leaves have died off which will be when the hot summer temperatures arrive.

You are not likely to get a lot of Mayapple fruits just by looking. But they taste really good and can add a great luxury treat to your often bland diet. The taste of the fruit is said to be like a combination of strawberry and cantaloupe! I don't know about that. Lets just say it has its own unique flavor.

So take note of the plants when they first emerge in the spring, usually ahead of other green spring growth. You can be more successful finding the fruit after the foliage has withered away making the plant and therefore the fruit harder to find.

But make no mistake, the wild animals will have no trouble finding the yellow fruits and eating them up as soon as they are ripe! So competition is fierce and you will likely lose way more often than you win.

OK, so all parts of the plant are really poisonous except for the fully ripened fruit, it is difficult to get any significant quantity of the fruits... so why bother! Well because the plants are poisonous of course! Let me explain. The plants are not just poisonous to you but are poisonous to 99.9% of all other animals as well. This along with their great resistance of plant diseases makes the absolute perfect plant to cultivate when you do not have access to insecticides and herbicides to keep a garden producing. And to make Mayapples even better they grow under shade. No land clearing for a garden and no all-day weeding sessions to fight back competing weeds.

Propagation is by seed and they spread by root suckers. And although the fruits are short lived they can probably best be eaten by first making jelly from them which will greatly lengthen the time they can supplement your diet! They can also be eaten raw but that is eat them as you find them because they only last a couple of days before they turn bad.