White Snakeroot

Here's a White Snakeroot from last autumn. At least I'm pretty sure it's a White Snakeroot; it has a few similar-looking relatives in the area:

As I alluded to in this post, busy botanists have been reclassifying this plant and its relatives. Back in the naive 1970s the bonesets/thoroughworts, snakeroots, Joe-Pye weeds, and mistflowers were all one happy genus, but sometime over the last half century each has gotten its own genus (though there's no denying that all these plants are fairly closely related).

White Snakeroot has a dark side. It's poisonous, and if cows or goats eat it, the poison gets into their milk, potentially causing milk sickness in people who drink their milk. One notable victim was Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln.


September 26, 2022 at Washington Valley Park
Photo 248785444, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)



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