#aniseroot

From top: new spring greens erupt from the margins of a mountain stream; smooth Solomon's seal (Polygonatum biflorum); Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) and uncoiling fiddleheads; great white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum); slender toothwort (Cardamine angustata); azure bluet (Houstonia caerulea); rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides); and longstyle sweetroot (Osmorhiza longistylis), also known as aniseroot and wild licorice.

Osmorhiza longistylus / Aniseroot at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

Longstyle sweetroot (Osmorhiza longistylis), also known as aniseroot. sweet anise, and long-styled sweet cicely, is one of my favorite finds in Appalachia’s shady, spring woods. The crushed leaves and roots of this plant have the odor and flavor of licorice. Old timers made a potent tea of the plant’s roots, which can also be chewed raw or made into a flavoring; an extract from longstyle sweetroot can be used as a flavoring substitute for licorice. This graceful perennial produces delicate white flowers arranged in compound umbels on a tall flowering stalk. The fern-like foliage is divided into three compound leaves, which are further subdivided into three, coarsely-toothed leaflets. Longstyle sweetroot is a “bellwether” plant; it requires high quality habitat in which to grow and thrive, and its disappearance from the forest indicates an ecosystem in decline. The photos above were taken in Coopers Rock State Forest.

View On WordPress