Photo: Fritzflohrreynolds, CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Squirrel Corn

Dicentra canadensis

At a glance

Family

Papaveraceae (Fumarioideae, the fumewort subfamily; historically placed in its own family, Fumariaceae)

Type

Herbaceous spring ephemeral wildflower

Parts used

None; no part of the plant is used medicinally or culinarily, as the whole plant and especially the tubers are considered toxic

Size

6 to 10 inches tall, forming a low, ferny mound

Bloom

Early to mid spring, typically April into May

Habitat

Rich, shaded deciduous woodlands and moist wooded slopes, often growing beside its lookalike cousin Dutchman's breeches

Acquisition

Grow

This plant in HerbSense

Key benefits

✦

Not used medicinally

Prized for early spring bloom

Supports woodland biodiversity

Ornamental garden interest

Traditional uses

✦

Squirrel corn was never a plant early American herbalists reached for as medicine, and for good reason. Nineteenth-century physicians and botanists who catalogued it, including the Eclectic doctors who prized so many of its woodland neighbors, noted its narcotic and irritant properties and generally steered clear, cataloguing it as a curiosity and a danger to grazing stock rather than a remedy. What earned it a place in folk memory instead was its charming underground architecture, clusters of small golden tubers that farmers and foragers likened to kernels of corn, and the plant's habit of vanishing back into the earth by early summer as if it had never bloomed at all. Its real legacy is as a beloved spring ephemeral, one of the first hushed announcements that the forest floor is waking up.

How to grow & use it

✦

🔒

The full apothecary for Squirrel Corn

Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.

✦Remedies & preparations
✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

Unlock every plant

From under $6 a month. Free plant identifications always included.

Pairs well with

✦Dutchman's breeches
✦Trillium
✦Wild ginger

Substitutes

✦Dutchman's breeches (visually similar spring ephemeral, equally not for internal use)

Choose it when

“For the woodland shade garden that wants a hushed, fleeting week of heart-shaped white blooms, not for the medicine cabinet.”

Did you know?

Squirrel corn gets both its common name and its old folk name, staggerweed, from real observation: squirrels were seen digging up and caching its little yellow tuber clusters, which look uncannily like kernels of corn, while free-ranging cattle that grazed on the plant were sometimes seen stumbling and trembling, giving rise to a name early farmers used as a warning as much as a description.

Safety

Squirrel corn is toxic, not a culinary or medicinal herb. Every part of the plant, especially its small yellow corn-kernel-like tubers, contains isoquinoline alkaloids (including protopine and related compounds shared with its close relative Dutchman's breeches) that can cause trembling, staggering, labored breathing, and convulsions if ingested, a syndrome old-time farmers called "the staggers" when livestock grazed on it. It is also known to cause skin irritation or contact dermatitis in some people who handle the foliage. Do not eat, brew, or apply any part of this plant, and keep grazing animals, pets, and children away from patches in the garden or the woods. If you or an animal in your care has eaten any part of this plant, contact a poison control center, veterinarian, or physician right away rather than attempting a home remedy.