Plants of the Underworld: Why So Many Are Named After the Devil

I never set out looking for the Devil.

But he kept showing up—in the roots I dug, the mushrooms I photographed, the folk names whispered by people who didn’t trust what they didn’t understand. “Devil’s Claw,” “Satan’s Bolete,” “Devil’s Fingers.”It’s not just drama—it’s pattern.

A trail of names assigned to things that looked too wild, worked too well, or refused to be tamed.

But most of these plants and fungi didn’t earn their names from evil. They earned them from fear, superstition, and a whole lot of misunderstood power.

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Where the Devil Got His Name From

Throughout history, people labeled things “Devil’s” when they were:

• Painful (thorns, claws, stingers)

• Poisonous or bitter

• Psychoactive (things that altered the mind or spirit)

• Used by women, healers, or outsiders

• Not understood by the Church or Western medicine

If something looked twisted, bled sap, or grew in cemeteries, it didn’t stand a chance.

Take Devil’s Claw, for Example

This root doesn’t just look like a demon’s hand—it acts like one if you’re an animal walking past.

Its hooked arms were known to latch onto hooves, tripping or injuring wildlife and livestock.

Farmers feared it. But deep in the desert, Indigenous healers knew better. They used it for pain, arthritis, fever, and more—long before anyone named it after hell. Turns out the real danger wasn’t the plant—it was the people naming it.

Note: when using the dried root for tincture - be sure to soak it for 24 hours to soften it - it’s impossible when dry. Believe me I tried EVERYTHING!

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Each Devil’s Name Has a Story

• Devil’s Bit Scabious was said to be bitten by the Devil himself because it healed too many people.

• Devil’s Urn emerges from the cold spring earth like a black chalice—funeral vibes included.

• Devil’s Fingers burst from a white egg like red tentacles, dripping in slime. (Honestly fair.)

• Satan’s Bolete looks like it should be poisonous—and it is—but the name just made it sound worse.

• Devil’s Snuffbox? Just a puffball. Until it explodes in a puff of “smoke.”

Some are creepy.

Some are misunderstood.

Some are beautiful and still blamed for things they never did.

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Why I Care

Because I’ve held these plants in my hands.

I’ve foraged them, photographed them, tinctured them. And not one of them ever hurt me.

They’ve helped. And that makes me wonder—how many other things in life were just named wrong?