Medicinal Monday...Crinkleroot

This delicate woodland wildflower emerges in mid-April and is a member of the mustard family that can be found in Connecticut and throughout most of the East Coast of the United States. Native American communities found both culinary and medicinal uses for this plant whose rhizomes have a spicey taste giving it one of its many nicknames, pepper root.

About Crinkle Root

Cardamine diphylla is also known as Crinkleroot. It is a native perennial in the U.S. and typically grows in the rich, moist, and slightly acidic soils of the woodlands or in shaded meadows. In the spring the plant emerges upright from the ground and can grow up to 16 inches. The basal foliage emerges from the stem and is comprised of two leaves divided into three coarsely toothed lobes. The white or pink flowers emerge from mid-April to mid-May and grow in loose clusters at the end of the stem. Pods appear four to five weeks after the flowers bloom. As the pods mature they split open dispersing seeds. The seeds may take up to three years to bloom.

Medicinal and Culinary Uses

The leaves and the roots of this plant are eaten by Native American communities both raw or cooked. Specifically, the Abnaki used the leaves and roots in sauces and made it into a relish. The Algonquin ground the root and mixed it with vinegar and used it as a condiment. The Cherokee use the leaves in salads, they also parboiled the leaves and stems and then added them to hot grease and sauteed them. The Iroquois ate the roots salted and boiled and Ojibwa ground the roots and mixed them with salt and sugar and used this concoction as a condiment.

Medicinally, the roots of this plant were chewed raw, boiled, or made into a tonic to treat sore throats, colds, or hoarseness by the Micmac, Malecite, and Cherokee. The Cherokee made a poultice of the roots and applied it to the forehead to treat headaches. The Algonquin, Iroquois, and Malecite made an infusion of the plant to treat children's fevers. The Algonquin made an infusion of this plant along with sweet flag root and took it to treat heart disease, and the Iroquois made a compound to treat chest pains. The Delaware Oklahoma and the Iroquois made an infusion of the plant to treat Tuberculosis, and the Micmac chewed the root as a sedative. The Iroquois made an infusion of roots and drank it when love medicine was too strong.

Did You Know...

Other names for this plant are broad-leaved toothwort, tooth root, pepper root, and two-leaf toothwort.

The West Virginia white butterfly uses part of this plant to lay its eggs.

Flea beetles feed on the foliage of Crinkle Root.

The name, Cardamine is derived from the Greek word Kardamon, which refers to cress in the Mustard family. 

The species name, diphylla is Greek for two-leaved.