Drupe. And droop. Anyone might think these two words that sound the same would come from the same root, right? But, of course, they don't. "Droop" comes from an Old Norse verb meaning "to hover" or "to hang the head for sorrow" (OED), while "drupe" comes from the Latin for "overripe olive". Both words, however, describe American spikenard, aka Aralia racemosa, aka That-big-wild-plant-I-didn't-know-the-name-of-for-several-years. Spikenard epitomizes another "d" word, too: drape. Its broad leaves, three together, drift beautifully on the slightest breeze. In early summer, the flower heads nodded primly with a practiced droop, and now they have turned to drupes--clusters of tiny berries in colors from khaki to burgundy to near black.

Spikenard grows along the edges of rich woodlands and is a cousin to ginseng, the mysterious plant I've heard tales about since I was little (my father gathered it in the woods of western Wisconsin and sold it to earn some cash during the 1930s Depression) yet have never seen except in cultivated plots. A ginseng collector walked all through our woods but didn't find any, and I take him at his word, yet I am always on the lookout for it, basing my search on Internet photos of the plant, which as you may know from trying to identify plants from photos, is no easy task with no sure-fire solution.

I only happened on the identity of Aralia racemosa because I happened to be reading Lynn Steiner's Landscaping with Native Plants of Wisconsin and voila! There it was--and her photo looked exactly like the plants growing along our driveway. So now I have the solution to one more mystery of the woods around me. Ginseng remains my quest. I wonder if ginseng droops? Or has drupes? Or drapes? All I know is that, like each of these words, it is valuable for its root (ha...) which is probably why none is growing wild on my property. Aralia racemosa, on the otherhand, which has no market value whatsoever, is invaluable because it is big and beautiful and comes up faithfully each year with no help at all from me. And it allows me to use the words "droop", "drape" and "drupe" which are fun to say. Nothing else is really needed.