Witnessed by: Western
Turkey corn (Dicentra canadensis), of the Papaveraceae family. Small spring ephemeral of the woodland floor, the finely cut grey-green leaves and the heart-shaped greenish-white flowers rising from a cluster of scattered tubers, the whole plant dying away by midsummer; native range: rich deciduous woodland of eastern North America, from Ontario and Quebec south through the Appalachians. Globally recognized as turkey corn, squirrel corn, staggerweed, wild turkey pea in English. The part used is tuber. Small round yellow tubers like grains of corn, hard when dried and shrivelled; the taste bitter, faintly aromatic and lingering.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
TURKEY CORN
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- turkey corn
- Scientific name
- Dicentra canadensis (Goldie) Walp.
- Family
- Papaveraceae
Form
- Part used
- tuber
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Western
- bitter
Temperature
- Western
- cool
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- skin · liver · blood · nerves
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Western
- alterative, tonic, mild diuretic, mild nervine
Cautions
- Contraindications
- pregnancy
- Toxicity
- the tuber carries isoquinoline alkaloids and is poisonous in quantity — 'staggerweed' names what it does to cattle that eat it; large doses depress and produce trembling and staggering. Not to be confused with the Chinese yan hu suo (Corydalis yanhusuo), a different plant and a different drug
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