Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), Cayuga County, NY - May 9th

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), a.k.a. orangeroot, yellow-root and yellow puccoon, is a vulnerable native herb in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is generally uncommon and sometimes rare due to over-collecting. If you happen to find it, please keep the exact location private; county-level is sufficient. 

Goldenseal grows in rich deciduous forests, often in association with Twinleaf and Squirrel Corn. Young plants erupting from seeds can remain as cotyledons* for a year or more. In the second and third years (or longer), a single leaf develops. It takes four to five years for a plant to actually begin flowering. At this stage, it has a single stem with two alternate, palmately-lobed leaves and one broad basal leaf, all with toothed edges and fairly-deep sinuses. (The leaves sometimes resemble silver maple leaves.) 

At the top of mature plants, there is a single terminal flower with three sepals and 12+ greenish-white stamens. There are no petals. Fertilized flowers grow into red, raspberry-like fruits with one or two seeds. Goldenseal also grows in patches of interconnected ramets** reproducing asexually through clonal propagation of the rhizomes.

On the USDA range map, Goldenseal is native from Ontario, Canada, southward to western New England and the mid-Atlantic and almost to the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi and Alabama. (It skips South Carolina and Florida.) A reminder that due to long-term decline from over-collecting and habitat loss, please restrict your public location information to the county level or another obscuring choice. On iNaturalist, mark the location "Private." Thank you.

*cotyledon: the first leaf of a developing plant embryo, i.e. the first part of the plant to emerge from the seed after germination

**ramet: a genetically identical individual that is part of a clonal colony, or genet