May Apple Flower

Did you know

• The single waxy white flower hides beneath the umbrella-like leaves and is often overlooked despite being quite beautiful.
• Every part of the plant is toxic except the fully ripe yellow fruit, which has a sweet, tropical flavor when mature.
• Podophyllotoxin, derived from the plant's roots, is used to produce the chemotherapy drug etoposide for treating cancer.
• May apples form extensive colonies through underground rhizomes, with some colonies estimated to be over a century old.
• Box turtles are one of the primary seed dispersers, eating the ripe fruits and carrying seeds far from the parent colony.

Color meanings

Uses

• woodland garden
• pharmaceutical source
• native ground cover
• historical folk medicine