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What About Indian Pink?

© Gregg Pasterick

Ya know, ya just don't hear much about Indian Pink (Spigelia merilandica). Not California Indian Pink (Silene californica,) just plain ol' Indian Pink. Perhaps it's because it is not widespread, limited to the southeastern United States, from Maryland down to Florida, and west to Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Perhaps it's because it only grows in rich, wet woods and nobody takes the time to venture into rich, wet woods. Or maybe because it is disappearing because those who do venture into rich, wet woods are over-harvesting the darn thing. Indian Pink is an unusually lovely wildflower, and does well in gardens; two things that can spell doom for a wildflower that is not widespread.

A member of the Logania Family (Loganiaceae), Indian Pink has trumpet-shaped flowers which are red on the outside, yellow on the inside. It has alternate stemless, lanceolate-ovate leaves, which are up to four inches long and three inches wide. The entire plant grows up to two feet. It blooms throughout the spring into the early summer. A third strike against it is that it blooms from the bottom up, and the lower flowers can be removed as they wither, prolonging the blooming season. No wonder well-intentioned gardeners can't keep their hands off of it.

There are more than 30 genera in the Logania Family, and over 500 species. Perhaps the best known, particularly among gardeners, is Buddleia. There are about 50 species in the Spigelia genus. California Indian Pink, by the way, is in the Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae) (see my article from last year, Scarlet Stars in a Green Cosmos.)

Indian Pink has been known by a variety of names, and has had a variety of uses. Some of those names include Maryland Pink, Pinkroot, Wormgrass, American Wormgrass, American Wormroot, and Starbloom. As for its uses, Cherokee and other Native American tribes used it as a ritual and ceremonial herb. It was used to induce visions and foretell the future. It was also used as a poison in some suicidal ceremonies.

Jacob Bigelow, in the early 19th century, said of its use as a vermifuge, "(Indian Pink) is now so generally established that the plant has become a considerable article of commerce to various parts of the world, from our southern states."

John Uri Lloyd wrote in 1911, "as a domestic remedy it was customary half a century ago, to use a mixture of pinkroot and senna, a home decoction being given to children and others afflicted with worms..."

Indian Pink

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