Botany Collection - Goldthread, Coptis trifolia

Beautifully Captured in Watercolour

Blending art and science, botanical illustration has long been used to represent the colour, form and species details of plants. Nova Scotia artist Azor Vieanneau created many line drawings and watercolours for our botany collection (as well as painting most or all of the Museum’s dioramas). His illustrations were either painted en plein air or from field sketches of living plants.

Goldthread is a very common species belonging to the Buttercup Family. The bright golden-yellow root, which gives the plant its name, has been prized for its medicinal properties by many cultures. In Canada, dried goldthread roots were commercially available as a treatment for thrush until the 1960s.