SITY: Monster Roots

Check out these creepy things I found last week.

I found these “monster roots” in a wooded area of my property, along a path that my husband had cleared for me to walk on. Botanical lingo is not my specialty, but I think these are not roots but rather rhizomes. They are thick, growing horizontally, and have roots and stem buds growing from them. They’re not underground, but they ordinarily would have been covered by a layer of leaves.

There are many plants that grow from rhizomes, but these are most likely either Solomon’s seal or false Solomon’s seal. Both plants are known to grow here. Also, Solomon’s seal is so called because of a circular mark (the “seal”) on its rhizome, and all the rhizomes in the pictures above have distinctive circular marks on them.

You’d think that, given the origin of the name, webpages devoted to Solomon’s seal and false Solomon’s seal would feature images of the rhizomes. That is strangely not the case. I found only a few pictures, and I never found a definitive answer as to whether or not false Solomon’s seal also has the mark. A few pages about herbal lore suggested that it does, though.

Most of the rhizomes I found had buds on them. They’re presumably alive and preparing to put up spring shoots, so I may get the opportunity to see what grows from them later. And perhaps I’ll try looking closely at the rhizomes of both Solomon’s seal and false Solomon’s seal–once they start blooming and I can be absolutely sure which is which–to see if there are any obvious differences between them. When it comes to monsters, you need to be able to tell them apart. I mean, you can’t kill a werewolf with a wooden stake or a vampire with a silver bullet. You gotta know your monsters–it could save your life! 😉