Golden Seal

Photo of a golden seal plant with flower.
Scientific Name
Hydrastis canadensis
Family
Ranunculaceae (crowfoots; buttercups)
Description

Golden seal is an herbaceous perennial. Flowers are terminal on a short peduncle (stem) arising from the axil of 2-leaved plants. The peduncle supports a very small leaf. The flower has no petals; 3 sepals fall off as the flower opens, leaving only white stamens and pistils in a rounded cluster that is about ½ inch wide. Blooms April–May. Leaves distinctive, with a crinkled texture, either 1 or at most 2, near the top of the hairy, unbranching stem; leaves large, 5-lobed with palmate veins, the lobes with large, coarse teeth. After flowering, a few basal leaves of the same shape appear. Fruit single, a compact, compound, scarlet berry, resembling a raspberry.

Other Common Names
Goldenseal
Size
Height: to about 6 inches.
Where To Find
image of Golden Seal Distribution Map
Mostly in the Ozarks and in Central Missouri. Absent from most northernwestern and southwestern counties.
Occurs in moist, humus-rich wooded slopes and wooded valleys. Golden seal sometimes forms very large colonies.
The roots and sometimes the leaves are used medicinally, a practice that continues from Native American and frontier folk medicine. Numerous studies are focusing on its potential benefits as well as its toxicity. One concern is interactions that golden seal has with other medications.
Golden seal has long been declining throughout its range in part due to habitat destruction but mostly because of unscrupulous root collectors. Fortunately, today market demand is met by cultivated roots.
Media Gallery
Photo of a golden seal plant with flower.
Large, crinkled, palmately 5-lobed leaves distinguish golden seal, which occurs in moist woods in the Ozarks and Central Missouri.
Anonymous
1/6
Photo of a golden seal flower with leaf.
Golden seal has 1 or 2 very distinctive leaves that are large, crinkled, palmately lobed, and coarsely toothed.
Julianna Schroeder
2/6
Photo of a golden seal flower, closeup.
Golden seal flowers have no petals; the 3 sepals fall off as the flower opens, leaving only white stamens and pistils in a rounded cluster about ½ inch wide.
Julianna Schroeder
3/6
Photo of golden seal plant on forest floor, side view.
Golden seal occurs in moist, humus-rich wooded slopes and wooded valleys.
Julianna Schroeder
4/6
Photo of a golden seal plant in bloom.
Golden seal has long been declining throughout its range mostly because of unscrupulous root collectors.
Julianna Schroeder
5/6
Close-up of a Golden Seal plant with a red fruit on a short, barbed stem. The fruit looks like a very small raspberry.
Submitted by Mike Conley
6/6
Photo of a golden seal plant with flower.
Free to use
Photo of a golden seal flower with leaf.
Free to use
Photo of a golden seal flower, closeup.
Free to use
Photo of golden seal plant on forest floor, side view.
Free to use
Photo of a golden seal plant in bloom.
Free to use
Close-up of a Golden Seal plant with a red fruit on a short, barbed stem. The fruit looks like a very small raspberry.
Similar Species
About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri
A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!