Red Baneberry

It's always a bonus when a plant has multi-season appeal.  Red Baneberry starts early in the spring with intriguing new growth that leads to handsome compound leaves. In May and June clusters of white flowers attract pollen collecting bees, like sweat bees, who feed the pollen to their larvae.  The flowers do not, however, produce nectar.  Actaea rubra is a member of the buttercup family Ranunculas, the same family that gives us anemone, columbine and clematis.  The family resemblance is most obvious to me in the leaves, but the flowers of the baneberry do resemble the flowers of Clematis virginiana, or Virgin's Bower.  The fruit, however, is very different.  Baneberries naturally produce berries.  As the name implies, they are not fit for consumption.  All parts of the plant contain a cardiac glycoside, a trait shared by many family members.  Other than pollen collectors, there are few fauna that turn to the flora for food, though a few birds eat the berries.  For the gardener with kids or grand kids who might be tempted to sample the berries in the garden, this plant is best left in the wild.  I don't have that worry, so I quickly added this beauty to my garden.  The berries hang on most of the summer and fall, darkening a bit.  They also self sow quite readily as demonstrated by the nice cluster of babies growing in the gravel next to the carport.  This is a bold plant in every way, standing two feet tall with large compound leaves, snow white flowers and blood red berries.  Its close relative the White Baneberry, A alba has white berries with a small black dot at the top, source of its other common name, Dolls' Eye.  I planted the white one last year, but  the location was too sunny and it burned up.  I tried again this spring and chose a shadier location.  The plant came through the summer in good shape and I expect flowers and fruit next year.  A slow spreader, the baneberries do not need dividing, but can be lifted and separated  to gain more plants.