The curious doll-eyed plant

Fruits of the Actaea pachypoda

Nature often surprises us, and often leaves us speechless. As far as the world of plants is concerned, there are millions of species and some of them are really curious, such as the one known by the name of Doll eyes because of how similar its fruits are to the eyeballs that they put on this toy.

It is not very well known, but perhaps that is why it is so surprising. Let's discover it.

Actaea pachypoda flowers

The Doll Eyes plant, whose scientific name is Actaea pachypoda, is a herbaceous perennial native to North America that grows to a height of half a meter. It has bipinnate compound leaves, with serrated edges, and measures about 40cm in length by 30cm in width. Its flowers are white, and are distributed in such a way that they form a dense cluster of 10cm in length.

The fruit, undoubtedly the most peculiar of the plant, is a drupe that measures 1cm in diameter. It can be white or red, like this:

Actaea pachypoda f. rubrocorpa

Actaea pachypoda f. rubrocorpa

The whole plant is toxic, and the fruits are very poisonous. Although the natives use it to combat the rattlesnake bite, you should not prepare any curative remedy if you do not know what you are doing, as it could be very dangerous. For this reason, it is not recommended to have it in the gardens, and less if you have small children and / or pets. It could only be done if the whole family knew that it should be treated only as an ornamental plant, placing it in an area out of the reach of children and animals, in semi-shade.

Have you ever heard of the Doll Eyes plant? What do you think? It is very curious, right?


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