Hydrastis Canadensis L.
Pharmacopoeial Name — Hydrastis.
Other Common Names — Yellowroot, yellow puccoon, orange-root, yellow Indian-paint, turmeric-root, Indian turmeric, Ohio curcuma, ground raspberry, eye-root, eye-balm, yellow-eye, jaundice-root, Indian-dye.
Habitat and Range — This native forest plant occurs in patches in high, open woods, and usually on hill sides or bluffs affording natural drainage, from southern New York to Minnesota and western Ontario, south to Georgia and Missouri.
Golden Seal is now becoming scarce thruout its range. Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia have been the greatest Golden Seal producing states.
Golden Seal (Hydrastis Canadensis) Flowering Plant and Fruit.
Description of Plant — Golden Seal is a perennial plant belonging to the same family as the buttercup, namely the crowfoot family (Ranunculaceae). It has a thick yellow rootstock, which sends up an erect hairy stem about 1 foot in height, surrounded at the base by 2 or 3 yellowish scales. The yellow color of the roots and scales extends up the stem so far as it is covered by soil, while the portion of the stem above ground has a purplish color. The stem, which has only two leaves, seems to fork at the top, one branch bearing a large leaf and the other a smaller one and a flower. A third leaf, which is much smaller than the other two and stemless, is occasionally produced. The leaves are palmately 5 to 9 lobed, the lobes broad, acute, sharply and unequally toothed; they are prominently veined on the lower surface and at flowering time, when they are very much wrinkled, they are only partially developed, but they continue to expand until they are from 6 to 8 inches in diameter becoming thinner in texture and smoother. The upper leaf subtends or incloses the flower bud. The greenish white flower appears about April or May, but it is of short duration, lasting only five or six days. It is less than half an inch in diameter, and, instead of petals, has three small petal-like sepals, which fall away as soon as the flower expands, leaving only the numerous stamens (as many as 40 or 50), in the center of which are about a dozen pistils, which finally develop into a round fleshy, berry-like head which ripens in July or August. The fruit when ripe turns a bright red and resembles a large raspberry, whence the common name "ground-raspberry" is derived. It contains from 10 to 20 small black, shining, hard seeds.