Helleborus niger L. 'Christmas Carol'
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Helleborus niger 'Christmas Carol'

Family: RANUNCULACEAE
Genus: Helleborus
Species: niger L.
Cultivar: 'Christmas Carol'
Pharmacopoeia Londinensis name: Elleborus Niger
Distribution summary: The Alps
Habit: Perennial
Hardiness: H4 - Hardy; average winter
Habitat: Woods, thickets, banks
Garden status: Currently grown
Garden location: Horseshoe parterre by William Harvey house (G)
Flowering months: January, February, December
Reason for growing: Toxic

Additional Notes

Toxicity due to tropane alkaloids.

Professor Anthony Dayan, 2021

The following notes refer to the species of this plant. Culpeper: “The roots (boiled in vinegar) ... be an admirable remedy against inveterate scabs, itch and leprosy, the same helps the toothache, being held in the mouth, dropped into the ears, helpeth deafness coming of melancholy and noises in the ears; corrected with a little cinnamon (as powder) it purgeth melancholy, resisteth madness.”

Culpeper, Nicholas. (1650). A Physical Directory . London, Peter Cole.

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