Medicinal Monday - Yellow Blue Bead Lily

Found in Connecticut, this flowering perennial forest plant gets its name from the bright-colored blue berries it produces in the late-summer. The Algonquin community found several interesting uses for this plant from protecting them from mosquitos to using the roots of this plant to draw out poison in an open wound. 

About the Yellow Blue Bead Lily
This slow-growing plant is found most often in boreal forests throughout eastern North America. It often forms large colonies in cool, moist, shaded areas, however, it can also be found in mixed forest stands. Established colonies can survive for years as long as there is limited sunlight. The leaves have a leather-like texture and form at the base of the plant, they are soft and not toothed. A single leafless stalk grows up from the base of the plant and ends in several yellow bell-shaped flowers that bloom May - July. The inedible berries begin to ripen at the end of July and, by August they are a deep blue color. The plant regenerates by sending out rhizomes and by its seeds. The berries are pretty to look at but, they are semi-poisonous.

Medicinal Uses
A poultice of leaves is used as a disinfectant and anti-inflammatory by the Algonquin living in Quebec and by the Chippewa. The poultice is applied to wounds, sores, and burns. The Chippewa also make an infusion of leaves and use it as an external wash to soothe wounds and sores. The children bite patterns in the smooth skin of the leaves for entertainment and eat the young shoots of this plant in the spring. The leaves of this plant were crushed and the resulting residue is rubbed on the arms and face as a mosquito repellent. The Ojibwa and the Potawatomi use the roots to ease childbirth because of the plants anti-inflammatory and sedative properties. 

In addition to medicinal uses, the Great Lakes communities, Ojibwa, Menominee, and Meskwaki believe that dogs ate the roots of this plant to poison their teeth before attacking prey. If a dog with poison teeth bit someone, a poultice of the roots is applied to the bite in order to draw out the poison.

Did You Know...

The plant is also called Clinton's lily, corn lily, cow tongue, snakeberry, dogberry, and straw lily.

The plant is named Clintonia borealis in honor of a former New York senator and governor, DeWitt Clinton.

Hunters in North Quebec rubbed their traps with the roots because they believed bears were attracted to the scent.

According to a Mi'kmaq tale, when a grass snake eats a poisonous toad, it slithers in rapid circles around a shoot of the blue bead lily to transfer the poison to the plant.