A small herb. The leaves are all radical and grass-like, from 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide, and from 2 to 4 inches long. They are smooth, entire, acute, and of a firm texture, and have from 6 to 10 parallel and quite prominent veins. The flowering stem is erect, from 2 to 3 feet high, and arises from the center of the cluster of root leaves. It has no stem leaves, but at intervals of about 2 inches, there are very small, linear scales, which may readily escape detection without a close examination. The stems are round and striate near the base, but angular above. The flowers are perfect, and in slender, terminal, simple racemes. They are on short pedicles, with small bracts at the base. The perianth is cylindrical, urn-shaped, white, with a yellowish tinge at the apex; wrinkled, rough and mealy outside, and 6-cleft at the summit. The stamens are 6, small and included. The ovary is ovate, and tapers to a slender style, which is trifid at the apex. The fruit is a dry, many-seeded, acute pod, opening by 3 valves.

Bitter, diuretic, narcotic and tonic (root); stomachic (infusion of the leaves).

Plants for a Future
The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy
King's American Dispensatory

Diosgenin (root)

Promotes the appetite and is used in the treatment of diarrhoea, rheumatism and jaundice, for expelling flatulence, for troubles arising from menopause and for various uterine disorders (root); It is used as a female tonic in loss of virility and for debility (decoction of the dried root); in stomach problems and bloody dysentery (infusion of the leaves).