Entry Detail


mayapple


Entry Type:  
Species
Scientific Name:  
Common Name:  
mayapple
Myaamia Name:  
kahkiteemiši

Media 
Media not available.
Myaamia Archival Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Archival Data Comments
Rafert, S. 1989 Use - Medicinal 

The root was used as a physic or purgative: "they took the May apple root and pounded it up, and then soaked it out--it was always a liquid form, of course, when they used it." "May apple roots are still being used. There were still people who practiced herbal medicine [in his generation]", although he or no one he knew ever used it. "We knew that the used it, because we sometimes gathered it, and sold the root to people who did used it".

Rafert, S. 1989 Use - Food 

Fruits were eaten [in summer].

Lamb, E.W., Shultz, L.W. 1964 Use - Medicinal 

Mayapple root was used for stomach disorders.

Rafert, S. 1996 Use - Food 

Used as a snack food when in the woods.

Rafert, S. 1989 Use - Medicinal 

Lyman Mongosa described preparing a liquid for a woman who was given up by doctors, in the early 1930s. His medicine, he felt, saved her . . . and it may have been prepared from mayapple.

Gonella, M.P 2003-2006 Use - Food 

Fruit is edible when ripe, soft and yellow.

Gonella, M.P 2003-2006 Use - Food 

Fruits eaten raw or made into preserves.

Botanical Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Data Comments
Gleason, H.A. and Cronquist, A. 1991 Habitat 

Occurs in moist woods throughout eastern and western Myaamia lands.

Related Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Data Comments
Coulter, S. 1932  

Dried rhizome and roots in small doses 0.3-1.0cc can be used to increase flow of bile, and is a slow but powerful cathartic, emetic, and can be poisonous in too large a dose. In large doses it can cause violent purging with profuse watery stools, hemorrhaging to internal organs and depression of central nervous system.

Vogel, V.J. 1970  

The mayapple root can be used as a purgative as well as many other uses.

Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900  

"mayapple, kit-tak-may-ne"