Black cohosh

Actaea racemosa

Ranunculaceae

A woodland candle whose rhizome is a menopause herb with a real liver signal on extracts.

North American woodland root. Buy cultivated. Liver-injury reports exist with extracts.

Parts used: Rhizome
Traditional notes: Menopausal heat and mood folklore · Muscle ache · Traditional women’s medicine
Grow · USDA 6b: Perennial, USDA 3–8, woodland Stratified seed or nursery plants. Slow. In work: May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Harvest: Rhizome after year 3–4 from cultivated plants only.

Leaf mold and shade. It wants to forget the sun.
Never dig wild stands. Buy plants.
The white candle is the garden reason to grow it even if you never harvest.

Safety

Liver disease Pregnancy Hormone-sensitive cancers without oncology advice Wild-dug souvenir roots

Lore

A woodland bugbane of eastern North America. Eclectic physicians used the root for women’s complaints; modern extracts are a menopause aisle. The name cohosh is Algonquian.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.