A Beautiful Medicinal Native Plant
![American Spikenard (Aralia racemosa) with ripening fruit.](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=681x1024:format=jpg/path/sdccc40e06c1472d8/image/i9fe0c5739fdb0ad9/version/1698005231/image.jpg)
American spikenard (Aralia racemosa) is one of my favorite shade-loving native plants under cultivation at Distant Hill Gardens.
American spikenard is a relative of ginseng. A perennial here at Distant Hill Gardens, it reaches up to 6 feet in height and makes a striking display in the garden. The plant produces tiny greenish-white flowers in rounded clusters in the summer and dark purple-red berries in the fall.
One of its most beautiful attributes of Aralia racemosa are its heart-shaped leaves that can reach up to 8 inches across.
![](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=681x1024:format=jpg/path/sdccc40e06c1472d8/image/i50a7a749d033a829/version/1698005281/image.jpg)
We grew our Spikenard from seed gathered from native specimens in our woods.
Medicinally, the roots of American Spikenard have a number of uses, including as a diuretic and as an expectorant. Native Americans used an infusion of the roots to treat a wide variety of ailments, including tuberculosis, coughs, colds, sore throats, menstrual problems, kidney problems, and lung diseases. They also applied a poultice of the root to burns, swelling, wounds, boils, sprained muscles, and broken bones.