The false black helleborine can be admired in the Woodland Garden.
A member of the Melanthiaceae, which also includes Paris and Trillium, the genus Veratrum contains 25 species from the temperate northern hemisphere and northern Mexico, where they grow in damp meadows and woodland. All species are rhizomatous and have alternate leaves, the lower of which are broad and pleated. Six-petalled flowers are carried in erect terminal racemes. V. nigrum is one of the more widely grown species being highly attractive and reaching 1.2m in height and bearing deep reddish-purple flowers. A native of woodland of temperate Asia and Europe it requires partial shade and deep, moist, well-drained, humus-rich soil. All parts of this plant are highly toxic and should not be ingested, though it has been used medicinally as a laxative and analgesic, and it has also been used as an insecticide and parasiticide.