A perennial plant, one of the earliest and most beautiful spring flowers.  It has a lovely white flower and produces only a single leaf and a flowering scape about 6 inches high. When the leaf first appears it is wrapped round the flower bud and is a greyish-green colour covered with a downy bloom - Leaves palmate five to nine lobed, 6 to 10 inches long. After flowering the leaves increase in size, the underside paler showing prominent veins. The white flower is wax-like with golden stamens. The root is collected in the autumn, after leaves die down; it must be stored in a dry place or it quickly deteriorates.

• Synonyms: Red Indian paint, red root, tetterwort, red pucoon, paucon, coon root, snakebite, sweet slumber
• Parts used: rhizome and roots
• Collection: The rhizomes are unearthed from May to June, or in the autumn after the leaves have dried.
• The seed is an oblong narrow pod about 1 inch long. The rootstock is thick, round and fleshy, slightly curved at ends, and contains an orange-red juice, and is about 1 to 4 inches long, with orange-red rootlets.