Actaea pachypoda Monroe
Native to much of Eastern North American, from Canada south to the Gulf, we’ve struggled for years to grow most strains of Actaea pachypoda on the market due to our hot, humid summers. Thanks to native plant guru Jan Midgley for sharing this form from Monroe County, Alabama that thrives in the Deep South and became a 2017 Plant Delights/JLBG introduction. These amazing deciduous 30″ tall perennials are topped first with a short white bottlebrush-like flower in mid-spring, aproned below by green astilbe-like foliage. In August, the amazing terminal stalks of white, ceramic doll-eye like fruit replace the faded flowers. Average to slightly moist, humus rich soil gives the best results. Despite being poisonous to humans, it’s used as a medicine to treat coughs and colds, sore throats, itchy skin, child birthing pain, as an oxytocin producer, to stimulate milk flow in new mothers, revive patients near death (no effect on zombies), and most important, to treat syphilis. Shhhh…please don’t tell the FDA.
