Indian hellebore (Veratrum viride)

Gitxsan name:  sgants'iks (leaves & plant), malgwasxw (root)
Wet'suwet'en name:  konye

Botanical Description

• perennial with simple robust stems, 0.7-2.0 metres tall, leafy and hairy throughout
• large, broad leaves, oblong, pointed at tip and clasping at base, prominently ribbed, hairy underside
• star shaped, yellow-green flowers with dark green centres, numerous in thin, branched drooping terminal tassels with a musky odor
• found in wet thickets, open forests
• lowland to alpine meadows

Photo courtesy of Jim Pojar (53kB)

Ethnobotanical Use

Natives recognized its poisonous nature and treated it with great respect, they considered it to have great spiritual values, used for purification as well as healing. The Gitxsan sliced and dried the rhizomes and burned them as a fumigant to drive away evil spirits. The roots were grated and added to bath water to help cure skin and scalp conditions, or added to laundry to purify or cleanse clothing, especially to remove human scent from hunters' clothing. The smoke was inhaled to assist sleepwalkers to return to the body properly and is also used as a decongestant.

The Wet'suwet'en believed that if you were to bathe in the liquid from the roots of the Indian hellebore you would become very lucky.

CAUTION: This species is one of the most violently poisonous plants in British Columbia; plants of this genus are powdered to form the garden insecticide "hellebore".