Medicinal plant long thought extinct in Maine rediscovered in Bowdoin field

https://bangordailynews.com/2018/08/20/homestead/medicinal-plant-long-thought-extinct-in-maine-rediscovered-in-bowdoin-field/

Assertions of the 1960s folk group The Irish Rovers notwithstanding, unicorns are alive and well in Maine.

The unicorn root, that is.

This summer the Maine Natural Areas Program documented about 300 flowering stems of the the unicorn root (Aletris farinosa) in a damp Bowdoin field, according to the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Also known as white colic-root, or colicroot, the fancifully named unicorn root has not been seen in Maine for 130 years and was long thought to have been absent from the state.

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