Planting the Future

HELONIAS ROOT

Chamaelirium luteum

DEB SOULE

I first came upon helionas root, or false unicorn, when walking in the woods in North Carolina with my botanist friend Doug Elliott in the late 1980s. I was excited to meet this plant and immediately got onto my hands and knees to have a closer look at the white, starry flowers growing on 1- to 2-foot-tall spikes. I thought about how different these small spikes are from the 5- to 7-foot-tall white flowering racemes of the black cohoshes that live in the same neighborhood as helonias root yet flower at different times. I was able to purchase a few dozen plants from Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts, four years ago to plant in a woodland garden near my house. Six plants have survived some tough Maine winters under layers of leaf and straw mulch. Every spring when I begin to uncover the area where the helonias root grows, I say a prayer in the hope that my plants have survived in this zone, which is farther north than their normal range. One of the common names for this plant is fairy wand and in late June, when the female plants are flowering, I can’t help but smile, imagining a fairy using this flower as a wand.

Helonias root belongs to the Liliaceae or Lily family and grows in moist meadows, bogs, thickets, and woods from western Massachusetts to Michigan and south to Florida. The female and male flowers are small and white and grow on separate stalks. The female flower spike is shorter and straighter than the male flower and blunt at the tip. Each individual female flower consists of six tiny white petals, and a small globular ovary about the size of a grain of hemp seed. The seeds form in an oblong-shaped capsule in the fall. The male flowers are 4 to 6 inches in length and grow on a drooping, plumelike spike—hence another common name, drooping starwort.

The female and male flower stalks arise from a rosette of smooth leaves; veins run lengthwise along each leaf, which is oblong shaped and approximately 8 inches long. The female plant is leafier than the male. The rhizome is the part of the plant herbalists use and its color is a light tan when fresh. The slight upward curve at the tip resembles a stubby horn, which is how the plant received the names false unicorn and unicorn’s horn.

Doug Elliott writes about one of the common names for this plant, devil’s bit, in his book Wild Roots: A Forager’s Guide to the Edible and Medicinal Roots, Tubers, Corms, and Rhizomes of North America.

The name Devil’s Bit derives from the bitten-off, knub-like appearance of the rhizome. The name, along with a legend, came from Europe where it referred to a European plant with a similar rootstock. The long, trailing roots of this plant, so the legend goes, possessed not only extremely beneficial healing properties, but extraordinary magic. So beneficial was it for the people who used it that the Devil himself became angered and tried to change the qualities of the root from good to bad. The power and goodness of this plant was so strong, however, that his attempts were always thwarted. Finally, the Devil flew into a rage and personally bit off every one of the roots. His rage was so searing that to this day the roots have not been able to grow back. But the remaining stub is still imbued with good medicine, and every spring it is able to put forth the tall spike of beautiful, blazing-star blossoms as a reminder that the power of goodness can always avert the forces of evil.

In King’s American Dispensatory, Volume 1, rewritten and enlarged in 1898, pharmacist John Uri Lloyd and Dr. Harvey Felter wrote of helonias root’s uses for women:

In diseases of the reproductive organs of females, and especially of the uterus, it is one of our most valuable agents, acting as a uterine tonic, and gradually removing abnormal conditions, while at the same time it imparts tone and vigor to the reproductive organs. Hence, it is much used in leucorrhaea, amenorrhaea, dysmenorrhaea, and to remove the tendency to repeated and successive miscarriages. A particular phase removed by it is the irritability and despondency that often attends uterine trouble. In painful menstruation it has been found especially adapted to those cases in which there is pelvic fullness, a sensation as if the womb and rectum were distended with blood, and the aching, bearing-down organs feel as if they would fall out of the body.

As so often is the case throughout history, indigenous peoples and women’s contributions are often unrecognized and unrecorded. Helonias root is a plant used by Native American women, who passed their knowledge of this plant on to others, apparently through word of mouth. In the 1800s the Eclectics and physiomedicalists wrote about the valuable uses of helonias root. Today’s British herbalists recognize the value of this plant as well, for it is included in the 1992 edition of the British Herbal Compendium.

Helonias root contains hormonelike saponins and steroidal compounds, including the hormone precursor diosgenin, which may partly account for its long tradition as a uterine tonic. In my own practice with women, I have recommended that this herb be taken in small doses for several weeks to help restore strength and tone to the uterus after pregnancy, an abortion, miscarriage, or surgery, and for promoting fertility. Women with ovarian cysts or endometriosis may take helonias root with other herbs over several weeks to increase circulation to the pelvic area. Women healing from sexual abuse experiences may find the root, when taken a few times a week, helpful in restoring feelings of strength and vitality in their womb area.

Helonias root is a good remedy for a woman with a prolapsed uterus, because it improves muscle tone. It also acts as a tonic for the genitourinary tract. Helonias root eases nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, too, and in combination with other herbs helps prevent miscarriages. It strengthens the spleen and raises overall energy in the body.

Still, as much as I appreciate the medicine this plant offers to women, I seldom use it anymore. Shrinking habitat coupled with increased demand is causing serious depletion of this already sensitive woodland plant. We need cultivated resources. Unfortunately, no cultivation studies are under way and, even should acres be successfully planted today, it will be years before the Chamaelirium root is ready for harvesting. I hope more people will become interested in cultivating this plant so that it will flourish again in protected woodlands and meadows and be accessible to women who need helonias root’s medicine.

It is possible to propagate helonias root, though at this point I know of no one who is actively engaged in doing so. The only person I know who has successfully started this plant from seed is Heather McCargo, who worked for Garden in the Woods for five years, propagating native woodland plants. The seeds are collected in the fall from the female flower stalks and stored in a dry, dark, and cool place. The seeds are very tiny and need to be gently tamped into moist soil in late winter and kept in a semidark place; they germinate and develop in an indoor setting. The cultivated roots can be harvested in the fall of their fourth year. Until cultivation of helonias root can be assured, no wildcrafting of this plant is recommended.

UpS RECOMMENDATIONS

• Use only cultivated sources.

• Motherwort is a good alternative.