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Veratrum album
Also called European white hellebore, False helleborine, White hellebore, White veratrum, White false hellebore, Giant False Helleborine
Veratrum album is a tall, poisonous herbaceous perennial from rhizomes, native to Europe and parts of western Asia, with white flowers on stout stems up to about 175 cm. Its key to growing is cool, moist conditions, since it is a plant of mountain meadows and woodland edges and is rarely grown in gardens.
Veratrum album, the false helleborine, white hellebore, European white hellebore, or white veratrum (syn. Veratrum lobelianum Bernh.) is a poisonous plant in the family Melanthiaceae. It is native to Europe and parts of western Asia (western Siberia, Turkey, Caucasus).
In beverages, V. album has been mistaken for the harmless yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea) or wild garlic (Allium ursinum), resulting in poisoning. All parts of the plant are poisonous.
Extracts from dried rhizomes of Veratrum album were briefly used as a pesticide against the Colorado potato beetle.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Veratrum album 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
