English: Gold thread; Yellow root.
Region: north, eastern and western Northern America, northern Asia, Japan.
Habitat: wet to mesic, coniferous and mixed forests, bogs, willow scrub, and tundra; often associated with mosses; sea level to 1500 metres; requires a light moist humus-rich, slightly acidic soil, northerly aspect or light shade.
Content: alkaloid berberine.
Use: plant for food, herbal root beer, bitter flavour; leaves and stars for yellow dye; ornamental, ground cover in the peat garden; medicinal; materials.
BotanyHerb; evergreen; perennial; up to 15 cm tall.
Flowers: white.