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Dear Wood Folk,
Have you seen the plant with doll’s eyes for berries?
In Samuel Thayer’s newest book, Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants, he calls baneberry “possibly the most poisonous fleshy berry” in our region. As far as berries go both white (Actaea pachypoda) and red (Actaea rubra) baneberries can make you feel pretty sick.
Baneberries are in the buttercup family, which is showing up a lot in our poison plant diaries due to their parts typically containing toxins like ranunculin.
It’s easy to tell white and red baneberry apart when fruiting. However, there is an uncommon form of red baneberry that produces white berries. And pink berried hybrids are possible too.
Not-so Edible Uses of Baneberry
All parts of baneberries are poisonous, especially the berries and roots. They contain cardiogenic toxins; plural. Forcing down these bitter berries can lead to cardiac arrest and death.
Medicinal Uses of Baneberry
The roots of baneberries have been used carefully in herbalism. Its cousin and somewhat lookalike black cohosh is used much more in herbal medicine and will be covered at Song of the Woods in the future. So far we’ve only covered blue cohosh, which is not a related Actaea species despite sharing a common name with black cohosh.
Growing Actaea
Doll’s eyes / White baneberry especially makes a nice ornamental plant. Both red and white baneberries have fragrant rose scented flowers and eyepopping berries.
Baneberries grow in partial to full shade, and love Haliburton’s acidic soil. Both baneberries prefer average to moist soil (and white baneberry can handle wet soil). Besides buying the plant from a native plant dealer, you could sow the fresh ripe seeds 1-2 cm deep late summer. You’ll need to keep them moist. Both varieties can be difficult to start from seed. And established plants do not like being disturbed.
Besides planting the white and red berried variety together, there are many potential companion plants including wild ginger (to be covered here January 2026!) and sensitive fern. You could also plant baneberries under black walnut trees as a bushy groundcover.
There’s a good chance baneberry is already present if you have wooded property here; if you do spot it, that’s a sign of a healthy woodland. You may notice it along the edges of woods. It is much more noticeable when fruiting!
Its pollinators are mostly beetles and flies for a change. If you scroll just below to references you’ll see white baneberry to the least was included in all three of my favourite native plant gardening books for our northeastern or southern great lakes region (last three books on the list!)
Deer will avoid baneberry foliage. And rabbits more so – it’s poison to them too! But many birds and small mammals feed on the seeds. Just another reminder that seeing an animal eating a plant does not mean it’s safe for human consumption. Far too often I see that claim in foraging groups – yikes! And I bet it’s making its way into AI books too, double yikes!
REFERENCES
Edible and Medicinal Plants of Canada
Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern & Central North America
100 Easy-to-Grow Native Plants for Canadian Gardens
The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region
Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects with Native Plants