Photo: Walter Siegmund (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

False Solomon's Seal

Maianthemum racemosum

Also known as Solomon's Plume, False Spikenard, Treacleberry, Feathery Solomon's Seal, Smilacina racemosa

At a glance

Family

Asparagaceae (formerly classed in Liliaceae)

Type

Herbaceous woodland perennial

Parts used

Root (rhizome), young shoots, ripe berries

Size

1 to 3 feet tall, with a single gracefully arching stem

Bloom

Late spring, a feathery plume of small cream-white star flowers, followed by berries that ripen from speckled green to ruby red in late summer

Habitat

Shaded and partly shaded woodlands, forest edges, and streambanks across most of North America

Acquisition

Grow or buy

Traditional remedies in HerbSense

Key benefits

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Traditional wound poultice

Historic cough and cold remedy

Woodland garden groundcover

Traditional women's health tonic

Traditional uses

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Long before it had a Latin name, this arching woodland plant was a familiar presence in the medicine bundles of many Native American nations, who dug its knotty rhizome and pounded it fresh for wounds, bruises, and sores. Various tribes, including the Iroquois, Potawatomi, and Cherokee, brewed the root into a decoction for coughs, sore throats, and aches, and some used it to ease the discomforts of childbirth recovery. Its cousin, true Solomon's seal, gets most of the modern attention, but False Solomon's Seal carried its own quiet reputation as a trailside first aid plant, one you could dig on the spot and press directly to a cut or sting. The young shoots, gathered before the leaves unfurl, were also cooked and eaten as a spring green, much like asparagus.

How to grow & use it

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The full apothecary for False Solomon's Seal

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

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✦ Growing guide
✦Harvest & storage

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Pairs well with

✦Plantain
✦Yarrow
✦Comfrey leaf

Substitutes

✦True Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
✦Solomon's plume root can rarely be swapped for wild ginger in poultice blends

Choose it when

“For the forager's eye that follows an arching stem to its feathery plume, and the trailside hand reaching for a poultice.”

Did you know?

Its ripe berries were once called treacleberries by foragers, because their bittersweet flavor, somewhere between molasses and cough syrup, was said to taste exactly like old-fashioned treacle candy.

Safety

Raw root and berries contain saponins and can cause nausea or a laxative effect if eaten raw or in quantity, so traditional use cooked them and kept doses modest. It closely resembles true Solomon's seal and young false hellebore, so correct identification is essential before foraging.