Actaea podocarpaDC.

mountain bugbane

WFO wfo-0000519110 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Actaea podocarpa, photographed by Brian Finzel
fig. a Brian Finzel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-09-11 / obs. 156904037
Actaea podocarpa, photographed by Brian Finzel
fig. b Brian Finzel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 342153357
Actaea podocarpa, photographed by Evan M. Raskin
fig. c Evan M. Raskin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 9240500
Actaea podocarpa, photographed by Miguel Vieira
fig. d Miguel Vieira, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 22915419
Actaea podocarpa, photographed by Evan M. Raskin
fig. e Evan M. Raskin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203506664
Actaea podocarpa, photographed by John Kees
fig. f John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 54279686
Actaea podocarpa, photographed by Alan Weakley
fig. g Alan Weakley, CC0 1.0 / obs. 25816011
Actaea podocarpa, photographed by Alan Weakley
fig. h Alan Weakley, CC0 1.0 / obs. 9433700

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 10 botanical countries

Regions where Actaea podocarpa is native: Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia GeorgiaIllinoisKentuckyMarylandNorth CarolinaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVirginiaWest Virginia
Native distribution of Actaea podocarpa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Georgia GEO NORTHERN AMERICA
Illinois ILL
Kentucky KTY
Maryland MRY
North Carolina NCA
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 8 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Actaea americana (Michx.) Prantl
  • Actaea pentacarpa Michx. ex Torr. & A.Gray
  • Actaea pentagyna Walter
  • Cimicifuga americana Michx.
  • Cimicifuga cordifolia Pursh
  • Cimicifuga podocarpa (DC.) Elliott
  • Thalictrodes americanum (Michx.) Kuntze
  • Thalictrodes cordifolia (DC.) Kuntze

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.