A Rhubarb By Many Names!

You might be able to recognize rhubarb in the garden—but what is “true rhubarb”? If you don’t know the answer, then you have a lot in common with Western Europeans from the 1500s to 1800s.

Today, the common name “rhubarb” usually refers to the genus Rheum, which—according to a source from December 2020—contains 103 species spanning multiple continents. In China, rhubarb had been identified as a medicine in its earliest eras—possibly as far back as legendary figure Shennong’s reign in twenty-eighth century BCE.

Throughout the 1700s, there was a European frenzy to acquire amongst all species the “true Rubarbe” medicine (known today as China’s Rheum officinale), with its strong purgative qualities thought to best rid “the body of choler and flegme.” 

This frenzy invaded overseas to John Bartram’s garden around 1740, where Bartram’s patron Peter Collinson sent seeds of “Siberian rhubarbe,” the latest rumored “true” medicinal rhubarb. Possibly a misidentified culinary variety (Rheum undulatum), this was grown to maturity by Bartram in Lenapehoking soil.

Later, Bartram would receive what was probably meant to be seeds of Rheum palmatum from Benjamin Franklin around 1770, who also insisted that this rhubarb was the “True” kind.

But several decades earlier, John Batram had likely been growing what Collinson called the English “rhapontick,” or Rheum rhabarbarum (now considered by many to be synonymous with Rheum undulatum), the culinary variety we on Lenapehoking land might recognize best today.

And yet these modern-day identifications are still up for debate. Is your head spinning? Might we suggest a rhubarb tart to take your mind off of it? 

Sources Cited

1. Bartram, John. The Correspondence of John Bartram, 1734–1777. Edited by Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, Gainesville, Fl: University Press of Florida, 1992.
2. Breintnall, Joseph. “A Leaf of Rhubarb and withered.” 23 Nov. 1738. Nature prints of leaves, vol. 1, 11 Jul. 2011, pp. 128. librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A116672Philadelphia: Library Company of Philadelphia.
3. Fry, Joel. “Did John Bartram introduce rhubarb to North America?”‌ Growing History: The Philadelphia Historic Plants Constortium. wordpress.com/2012/07/20/did-john-bartram-introduce-rhubarb-to-north-america/
4. Britannica Editors. “Shennong.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 Oct. 2024, britannica.com/topic/Shennong.
5. Ferrer-Gallego, P. Pablo. “Typification of Three Linnaean Names in the Genus Rheum(Polygonaceae).” Taxon, vol. 69, no. 6, 2020, pp. 1350–53. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/27016758.
6. Foust, Clifford M. Rhubarb: The Wondrous Drug. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. google.com/books?id=mDMABAAAQBAJ
7. Kolodziejczyk-Czepas, J., Liudvytska, O. “Rheum rhaponticumand Rheum rhabarbarum: a review of phytochemistry, biological activities and therapeutic potential.” Phytochem Review, vol. 20, 2021, pp. 589–607. org/10.1007/s11101-020-09715-3
8. Parkinson, John. THEATRUM BOTANICUM: THE THEATER OF PLANTS[…] London: Tho. Cotes, 1640. org/10.5962/bhl.title.152383. Biodiversity Heritage Library.
9. Parkinson, John. THEATRUM BOTANICUM: THE THEATER OF PLsANTS[…] London: Tho. Cotes, 1640. umdl.umich.edu/A09011.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections.
10. Wang, Han et al. “Rheum officinale(a traditional Chinese medicine) for chronic kidney disease.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 7, no. CD00800, Jul. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD008000.pub2
11. Woodville, William. Rheum Palmatum 46. Published by Dr. Woodville, Oct. 1790. JSTOR, org/stable/community.34102536. Butler University Special Collections, Peloton Botanical Print Collection.