- Terese Loeb Kreuzer

 

Helleborus x hybridus 'Sunshine Selections,' growing at Rector Place and South End Avenue. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

There are two species of hellebore growing at Rector Place and South End Avenue - a white hellebore called Helleborus niger and a purplish pink hybrid called Helleborus x hybridus 'Sunshine Selections.'

This interesting plant was used (and sometimes misused) by the ancient Greeks for medicinal purposes. Many species of hellebore are poisonous but a correctly prepared and administered preparation can be helpful. The ancient Greeks used "black hellabore" (Helleborus niger) to treat paralysis, gout and insanity.

A Greek myth tells of insanity that Dionysus induced in the daughters of the king of Argos, who went running naked through the city, crying and screaming. (Since Dionysus is the god of wine, could they have been drunk?) Melampus of Pylos cured them with a dose of hellabore.

The Greeks found another use for hellabore during the siege of Kirrha in 585 B.C. They used it to poison the city's water supply, causing the defenders to succumb to diarrhea.

Alexander the Great reportedly died of a hellabore overdose in 323 B.C. It may have been taken for medicinal purposes or he may have been deliberately poisoned.

In the Middle Ages, practitioners of witchcraft used hellabore to summon demons.

Helleborus niger, which takes its name from the color of its roots, is sometimes called the Christmas Rose (though it is not a member of the rose family.) This stems from an old legend that it grew from the tears of a young girl who had no gift for the Christ Child in Bethlehem.

Hellebores are native to much of Europe, with the greatest concentration of species in the Balkans.




Helleborus niger was used medicinally by the ancient Greeks. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)