Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Baneberries are erect perennial woodland plants, 1 to 2 1/2 feet high.

The leaves of A pachypoda are divided 2 to 3 times into separate unevenly but sharply toothed, oblong 3-part leaflets which are usually hairless on the underside. This shape is similar to the Red Baneberry, A. rubra, except that A. rubra may have hair on the underside and the leaflets of A. pachypoda are generally more cut with more pointed teeth and lobes.

The inflorescence is a terminal cluster on a long stalk, cylindric in shape, and usually longer than wide, rising directly from the leaf stem, at or just below the division point of the 3 leaf parts, and then rising higher than the leaves.

Flowers are bisexual. The small cream colored flower petals number 4 to 10, are truncated at the tip or sometimes cleft and with a very tapered base. These fall off early leaving the stamens which can number 15 to 50, which have white long filaments and cream anthers. There is one pistil with the style either very short or absent. The sepals of calyx are whitish-green in color, and are not persistent on the fruit.

Fruit: The mature fruit is a white berry which is distinguished from the white-berry form of the Red Baneberry by the individual berries having a pink to red very thick stalk. Both however, have the dark spot at the end of the berry, the remains of the stigma, from whence comes the alternate common name of "doll's eyes." however the spot is larger in A. pachypoda and darker. The fleshy berries are oval in shape and contain 8 or more hard seeds that are cone shaped to wedge shaped, dark brown to reddish brown in color, 3.4 to 4.5 mm in size.

HAZARD: The word “bane” in the name tells you that Baneberry plants are poisonous and the berries are considered especially poisonous. More notes at page bottom.

 

Habitat: As it is a woodland plant White Baneberry is found in shady spots of open woods and forests where there is moderate moisture (mesic conditions). The root is a woody caudex with fibrous roots. Plants are very difficult to start from seed as there must be a cold moist storage period followed by a warm moist period, followed by another cold moist period, each period being at least 60 to 90 days. Planted outside, they would germinate in the 2nd year.

Names: The genus name Actaea is the Latin name that was used by Pliny and adopted by Linnaeus. The Latin is thought to come from old Greek, either aktea or akte, for 'elder' which probably refers to a similarity of leaf type with that plant. The species pachypoda refers to "a thick foot" referring to the thick berry stalks.

The author name for the plant description - 'Elliot’ refers to Stephen Elliot (1771-1830) American botanist and collector whose herbarium was the largest in America at the time. He is noted for A Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia from 1821 in which was the description of this species. A scientific name that has been used by some for plant in years past is A. alba, but that name is believed to refer to a European species and should not be used here. (Ref. #W7, Vol 3)

Comparisons: A. pachypoda is similar to the white berry variety of Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra) except there the stalks of the berries are thin and green or brown, the petal tips are acute to obtuse; the flower cluster is usually no longer than wide but cluster shape is not absolutely definitive.