White baneberry

Actaea pachypoda, white baneberry or doll's-eyes, is a herbaceous perennial of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) growing 46–76 cm tall (occasionally more) from a stout, knotted rhizome. The leaves are large, bipinnately to ternately compound, up to 40 cm long, with sharply toothed, ovate leaflets. In spring it produces a dense terminal raceme about 10 cm long of small white flowers with showy stamens. By late summer the rachis and pedicels swell and turn bright coral red, supporting the species' diagnostic shiny white berries — each marked with a dark stigma scar that gives the plant the common name 'doll's-eyes.' The species is native to mesic deciduous and mixed forests of eastern North America from southern Canada south to Georgia and Oklahoma, growing on rich, humusy soils in partial to full shade. All parts, especially the berries and roots, are highly toxic to humans.