American Spikenard

These berries are delicious when they are ripe in late September, early October - but it is for its roots that this plant is most highly valued. Concoctions from the roots are used in very wide range of herbal medicines and it is useful in treating allergies and other inbalances in the bodies systems.

Its habitat is underthreat in places like Missouri where it grows wild, from both foraging pigs who love to dig it up and eat it as well as plant hunters who gather it from the wild.