May Apples (Podophyllum peltatum)
Mayapples are beautiful, umbrella-like plants that grow in moist woods. Some of the plants have just one large, deeply divided leaf, while others have two leaves. A relatively large white flower appears under the 2-leafed plants sometime in May; a green berry or “apple” develops soon thereafter. By mid-June, the plant begins to fade to yellow.
All parts of this plant are poisonous except for the fruit. While people say the apple is edible, it is actually very bitter (in fact, another name for it is wild lemon). If you want to consume it, you’ll need a lot of sugar and some cooking time!
Mayapples have other common names, including Mandarin, Indian apple, umbrella plant, and maypop. They colonize quickly by rhizomes and form dense patches on the forest floor, starting in late March and April.
Click on the thumbnails below for a larger image of each photo. You will see the lovely may apple plant in many different stages of growth. Another bit of folklore: you know when it is morel season when the mayapple umbrellas begin to flatten out 🙂 !