Coptis trifolia Salisb.

Rhizomes bright yellow to orange. Leaves: blade ternate; leaflets sessile or short-petiolulate, blade cuneate-obovate, margins serrate, slightly lobed distally. Inflorescences 1-flowered, usually equal to or longer than leaves at anthesis, 3-17 cm, not elongating in fruit. Flowers erect; sepals spreading, oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic, 4-11× 1-4 mm; petals clavate, nectary apical, blade absent; stamens 30-60. Follicles 4-7; stipe equal to or longer than body; body elliptic, 3.9-7 mm; beak straight to ascending, 2-4 mm. Seeds 1-1.5 mm. 2 n =18.

Wet to mesic, coniferous and mixed forests, bogs, willow scrub, and tundra, often associated with mosses from sea level to 1500 metres.

The bitter roots have been eaten. They are also used to flavour beer. The plant is mixed with sassafras-root bark, and Irish moss and made into a herbal beer.

Plants can be grown by division.