A magical addition to the woodland edge, Gillenia stipulata, or American ipecac, has deeply lobed, toothed, bright green leaves held by thin, wiry reddish stems. An upright herbaceous perennial, it grows 2’-3' tall and wide and spreads gently by rhizome over time when sited in a good location. Delicate white flowers dance above the foliage from May to June. The foliage turns a delightful bronze-red in autumn.
Gillenia stipulata occurs in dry to moist soils in partially shady rocky woods and upland thickets. It tolerates more sunlight in cooler regions but is best suited for part sun/part shade locations and favors dappled shade overall. It is not particular about soil types, but favors those that are slightly acidic. Once established, American ipecac is reasonably drought tolerant. This is a sturdy, trouble free plant that has delicate features, from its foliage to its flowers, and is deserving of more attention and broader use.
Try Gillenia stipulata with other woodland perennials like Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern), Geranium maculatum (spotted geranium), Heuchera americana (American alumroot), Mitella diphylla (two-leaf miterwort), Polemonium reptans (Jacob's ladder), Silene stellata (starry campion), Thalictrum dioicum (early meadow-rue), and Zizia aurea (golden zizia). Add in graminoids like Deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hairgrass), Carex sprengelii (long-beaked sedge), and Carex radiata (eastern star sedge).
The foliage is toxic to mammalian herbivores, therefore the plants are resistant to both rabbits and deer. Gillenia stipulata attracts a number of pollinator insects including many native species of bees, butterflies and skippers. "Each leaf has two unusually large stipules (leaf-like bracts) at the leaf base which give the impression of each leaf having five rather than three leaflets. This plant closely resembles Gillenia trifoliata (Bowman's root), but its leaves are short-stalked, its leaflets are somewhat more deeply cut or toothed, and its large stipules at the base of each leaf persist throughout the life of the plant, whereas in G. trifoliata, the stipules drop quickly." -- Missouri Botanical Garden
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Recorded County Distribution: USDA data.
AL, AR, GA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NY, OH, OK, PA, TN, VA, WV, LA, TX |
Endangered | MD |
Extirpated | MD |
MAP OF WETLAND DELINEATION REGIONS
Code |
Status |
Designation |
Comment |
OBL |
Obligate Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Almost always occur in wetlands |
FACW |
Facultative Wetland |
Hydrophyte |
Usually occur in wetlands, but may occur in non-wetlands |
FAC |
Facultative |
Hydrophyte |
Occur in wetlands and non-wetlands |
FACU |
Facultative Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Usually occur in non-wetlands, but may occur in wetlands |
UPL |
Obligate Upland |
Nonhydrophyte |
Almost never occur in wetlands |
Kingdom | Plantae | Plants |
Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants |
Superdivision | Spermatophyta | Seed plants |
Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants |
Class | Magnoliopsida | Dicotyledons |
Subclass | Rosidae | |
Order | Rosales | |
Family | Rosaceae | Rose family |
Genus | Gillenia | Indian physic |
Species | Gillenia stipulata | American ipecac |
Porteranthus stipulatus
Sizes info
Shipping is free on all plants orders!
Your plants will ship using each grower’s preferred method: FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, or Spee-Dee Ground (in select midwestern states). Our growers ship orders Monday through Wednesday. The farther your plants need to travel, the earlier in the week they will ship. The goal is to have all plants delivered by the end of the week.
Shipping plugs:
Plugs are shipped in full flats, sometimes also referred to as trays. Multiple flats can be shipped in a single box. The flats are wrapped in netting or craft paper to secure the plants, and spacers are used between flats to keep the plants from being crushed.
When you unpack your plugs, the plants will have been somewhat flattened by the netting or craft paper. They will straighten out within a couple of days. You may also gently “fluff” them a bit to speed up the process. In some cases, your plants might have been cut back before packing, if the grower deemed them to have become too tall for safe packaging. Don’t worry, though, these guys know what they’re doing and would not compromise the health of the plants. They’ll fill back in in no time.
After receiving your plants’ journey in a dark box, it will be important to acclimate them to sunlight again. Over a couple of days, you should gradually move them into their preferred light exposure, and water them as per their requirement.
Although we always recommend putting your plants in the ground as soon as possible, they can stay healthy in the flats for a considerable amount of time. The key is to respect their growing requirements: if the species requires full sun, do not store them in the shade. If it is best adapted to dry soil, do not over-water.
Planting plugs:
We consider plugs ready to ship when the plants’ roots have filled the entire liner cell and the plants can easily be pulled out. In some cases you will have to go about it gently, wiggling the plant by the crown, and possibly squeezing the bottom of the liner to compress the growing medium and release the roots. Other times, the plants will appear to be root bound. They are not in the traditional sense. The plants are healthy but they have used up all the growing medium available to them. Plugs are at an aggressive stage of growth. As soon as planted the roots will immediately expand into your native soil. They establish faster than plants in larger containers, because they don’t have the luxury of a lot of growing media that can inhibit the roots from venturing outside of their comfort zone.
We are not going to address area preparation because the process can be complex and is always site-specific. However, as a rule, we recommend disturbing the soil as little as possible, and we do not recommend amending the soil. If you chose the right plant for the right conditions they will thrive. Any disturbance and amendments will only encourage weeds to emerge that never had a chance to do so before.
Installing plugs cannot be easier: dig a hole large enough for the roots to fit snugly inside, then water them in to eliminate air gaps. We recommend using a soil knife, sometimes referred to as hori hori, or a drill-adapted auger if it’s a large installation. If you use an auger, you will need a powerful drill. Depending on the size of the project and the type of soil, the process can be beyond what an average drill will bear. Mulching is recommended after installation to help keep weeds down while the plants establish. Be sure to keep it away from the crown of the plants. For large projects, you may want to mulch the area before planting, rather than tiptoeing through it after the fact. As a side note: if you are installing plugs in the fall, you might want to plant them so that the crown is about ¾” lower than the surrounding soil. The winter’s freeze/thaw cycles can push plugs out if the roots did not have enough time to establish and anchor them in.