It is also presumably useable as an ingredient in a meade or magewine. Perennial herb, native to Eastern N. America found from Maine to Georgia, west to Oklahoma and Minnesota, growing in rich soils in cool woods. Seeds should be sown in a shady position in a cold frame or greenhouse, and spend least their first winter there. Plant into their permanent positions in late summer or early spring. It has a large, thick, fleshy, whitish, root, growing 3 to 4 inches in length, specimens have been found twice this size.
Most roots are spindle shaped with smaller appendages.
The stem is simple and erect, on average about 1 to 2 foot high, bearing three to five large, palmate, leaves in a whorl atop the stem, each leaf is long stalked, divided into five finely-toothed, short petiole, leaflets, and a single, terminal umbel, with a few small, yellowish or light green flowers which grow on a short stalk from the center of the whorl of leaves. The fruit is a cluster of bright red berries. Flowers bloom in June and July. Gather the roots in Fall after the berries or seeds have fallen away. Dry for later herb use.