Plant of the Month

September/October 2004

Actaea pachypoda AGM

The White baneberry - Doll's eyes or pearls of the autumn?

by Christopher Bailes

Actaea pachypoda © Christopher Bailes

The herbaceous plants that we treasure for their showy fruits comprise only a tiny selection of the vast range of perennials in our gardens. Among the most striking members of this horticultural minority group are the Baneberries (Actaea), whose eight species make up roughly half of a small genus recently enlarged by the addition of the Bugbanes (Cimicifuga as was). These distinctive members of the Ranunculaceae are uncharacteristic of a family not otherwise noted for ornamental fleshy-fruited plants.

The name Actaea is derived from the Greek aktea, the elder tree, from the resemblance of its pinnate foliage. Linnaeus adopted the name from Pliny, demonstrating the ancient lineage of mankind's association with the genus, which has a long history in herbal medicine. All members of the genus are highly toxic (prompting their common name). The European A. spicata, as Radix christophecine (or Herb Christopher) was used variously in the treatment of dermatitis, asthma, arthritis and St. Vitus' dance. With its lethal cocktail of alkaloids the dosage must have required careful calibration, probably very much a question of kill or cure.

Actaea has a wide distribution across the entire Northern Hemisphere. A. pachypoda (still widely grown under the more aptly descriptive name of A. alba), was introduced into cultivation in 1656 from Eastern North America, described by Tradescant as the 'Indian branched wolf's bane with white fruits'. Baneberry fruits vary in colour from black through red to white. The most ornamental and commonly grown species, A. rubra (Red baneberry) and A. pachypoda both have red or white forms, with A. rubra f. neglecta being white and A. pachypoda f. rubrocarpa red.

Actaea pachypoda © Christopher Bailes

For the greater part of the year the baneberries are part of the woodland garden's supporting cast. Their light green dissected leaves provide an attractive background to earlier flowering subjects. The foliage is reminiscent of Astilbe, with A. pachypoda reaching around 80-90cm high. The unremarkable small fluffy white flowers, which are around 10mm across, are borne in spring in relatively compact 4-5cm racemes (in contrast to the elongated spikes of Cimicifuga). These extend as they mature to around 20cm long.

With the arrival of late summer the Baneberries come into their season of display, and the spikes of A. pachypoda provide a unique combination of thickened scarlet pedicels surmounted by white fruits reaching 8mm in diameter, each terminated by a dramatic black tip. The White baneberry's other common name of Doll's eyes certainly encapsulates the peculiar quality of the bead-like fruits on their equally striking red stalks, reminiscent of the eyes of the cheap dolls of yesteryear. It is a combination both fascinating and yet slightly unsettling, one which nevertheless has led many plantsmen and writers to sing the praises of A. pachypoda. Graham Thomas describes it as 'a real August treasure', and Beth Chatto as 'most extraordinary and beautiful when well grown', qualities which have also led the RHS to bestow the Award of Garden Merit upon it. The fruit display is usually good for at least a month, especially if conditions are to its liking.

The White baneberry is hardy (as would be expected in a species from Eastern N. America). A plant of cool, damp woodland it is undemanding with no particular pH preferences, thriving best in a moist, humus-rich soil in shade in the woodland garden, as ground cover between shrubs, or in a shady border. With more water at the root it can take higher light, and can make a striking marginal plant. The rhizomatous clumps may be divided from autumn to early spring. Seed should be sown in autumn as soon as fully ripe. Remove the berry pulp and sow the seed either in cold frames or in a shady, moist seedbed.

Whatever colour you choose, the Baneberries will provide valuable display in the autumn garden. The White baneberry is undoubtedly the most distinctive and desirable of this quietly useful group of plants, an autumn pearl for the woodland garden.

Contributor

Christopher Bailes, is the curator of Rosemoor Garden in Devon, the Royal Horticultural Society's first Regional Garden. From 1996 to 2000 he was also responsible for the Society's garden at Hyde Hall in Essex. He has travelled extensively on plant expeditions to East Africa, India, Nepal and Borneo. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture, a horticultural tour leader and lecturer in the UK and overseas, and has written several books and numerous articles for newspapers and gardening magazines.

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