How goldthread was used by Native Americans and colonists: Nature News
In New England, we are midway through the spring woodland wildflower season. The brilliant painted, red and nodding trilliums are blooming and will soon be followed by that showstopper — the lady’s slipper. However exciting it can be to find these beauties, it can be just as exciting to look for the tiny things, such as a diminutive, little plant known as goldthread that is also blooming, right now, in our woods and in many other places around the U.S.
While its glossy, evergreen leaves are a wonderful counterpoint to the dead leaves of the forest floor, what caught my eye on a recent walk were the tiny white flowers, glowing in the sunlight.
Goldthread is a small woodland plant with white, spring-blooming flowers and evergreen leaves that rise from a yellow underground root. The leaves are divided into three leaflets with scalloped edges, hence its scientific name Coptis trifolia. The genus name, Coptis, comes from the Greek word, coptein, meaning to cut, and refers to the divided leaves. The species name, trifolia, means divided into three-this species of goldthread does, in fact, have three leaves. The eponymous bright yellow root is thread-like and was actually used by Native Americans as a thread in beadwork.
Those bright yellow roots are also of special interest to humans. Native Americans used the roots extensively as a yellow dye for porcupine quills, feathers, skins, and wool. Both Native Americans and colonists used the underground stem and root, which is extremely bitter, to treat canker sores, as well as other mouth irritations, as an eye wash, and for the flu and common cold.
Why goldthread can make a good tonic
The magic ingredients in the roots are the alkaloids berberine and coptine. Berberine is also found in the bright yellow roots of the highly invasive barberry bush.
Goldthread has been shown to be biologically active against some bacteria like E. coli, presumably due to these alkaloids.
I don’t know whether the conditions are right for a bumper crop of goldthread flowers and seeds, but in my woods, I’m seeing more flowers than ever before. Beautiful tiny white flowers whose stems extend well above the leaves. These will be replaced by seed capsules that are really fun to look at with a magnifying glass, especially with kids, as they resemble tiny canoes.
Where goldthread grows
Goldthread prefers cool, moist habitats; coniferous forests, swamps, bogs, thickets, mossy places, and damp woods with infertile, acidic soil. This is one of those exquisitely adapted woodland plants that thrives in undisturbed, deep woods conditions that would daunt other species.
However, goldthread is also extremely sensitive to disturbance, abundance plummets after logging or any kind of clearing. This is a plant that should never be foraged, do not harvest goldthread for its roots — it needs all the help it can get!!
This sensitivity to disturbance is something that makes goldthread so exciting to discover. The presence of a healthy population of goldthread is an indicator that the woods it is growing in are somewhat pristine, that those woods are part of a healthy ecosystem, one unstressed by human activity. Go for a walk and you will feel the good vibrations.
Susan Pike, a researcher and an environmental sciences and biology teacher at Dover High School, welcomes your ideas for future column topics. Send your photos and observations to spike3116@gmail.com. Read more of her Nature News columns online at Seacoastonline.com and pikes-hikes.com, and follow her on Instagram @pikeshikes.