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Helleborus
Also called Christmas-rose, Vascular Plants, Tracheophytes
Hellebores are a genus of about 20 Eurasian perennials, mostly grown for their winter and early spring flowers, with many evergreen species. They thrive in shade and are frost-resistant, making them valued garden plants.
Commonly known as hellebores (), the Eurasian genus Helleborus consists of approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae, within which it gave its name to the tribe of Helleboreae. Many hellebore species are poisonous.
Despite common names such as winter rose, Christmas rose, and Lenten rose, hellebores are not closely related to the rose family (Rosaceae).
Hellebores are widely grown in United States Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 5a to 8b gardens for decorative purposes. They are particularly valued by gardeners for their winter and early spring flowering period; the plants are surprisingly frost-resistant and many are evergreen. Also of value is their shade tolerance. Many species of hellebore have green or greenish-purple flowers and are of limited garden value, although Corsican hellebore (H. argutifolius), a robust plant with pale green, cup-shaped flowers and attractive leathery foliage, is widely grown. So is the 'stinking hellebore' or setterwort (H. foetidus), which has drooping clusters of small, pale green, bell-shaped flowers, often edged with maroon, which contrasts with its dark evergreen foliage. H. foetidus 'Wester Flisk', with red-flushed flowers and flower stalks, is becoming popular, as are more recent selections with golden-yellow foliage.
The so-called Christmas rose (H.
All helleborus plants are toxic, and all parts of the helleborus plant are toxic. Hellebore poisoning is rare, but it does occur.
Hellebore plants are usually left alone by animals such as deer and rabbits because the leaves of the plant produce various toxins, making them distasteful to animals. The leaves have been known to sometimes bother gardeners with sensitive skin. It was used in the First Sacred War at the start of the sixth century BC to poison the water supply of the city of Kirrha.
Various species of this genus originated in Europe and Asia. The greatest concentration of species occurs in the Balkans. One atypical species (H. thibetanus) comes from western China; another atypical species (H. vesicarius) inhabits a small area on the border between Turkey and Syria.
In the early days of medicine, two kinds of hellebore were recognized: black hellebore, which included various species of Helleborus, and white hellebore, now known as Veratrum album, which belongs to a different plant family, the Melanthiaceae. Although the latter plant contains highly toxic, teratogenic alkaloids such as veratrine, cyclopamine, and jervine, it is believed to be the "hellebore" used by Hippocrates as a purgative.
Blue-grey hellebore · Stinking Hellebore · Majorcan Hellebore · Black Hellebore · Lenten-rose · Helleborus thibetanus · Green Hellebore
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hellebore by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
