Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BUTTON SNAKEROOT

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Eryngium yuccifolium Michx.

Woodson County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2-3 feet

Family: Apiaceae - Parsley Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Rattlesnake master, button eryngo.

Stems:

Erect, solitary, branching above, glabrous, blue-green waxy, ridged.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, rigid, bluish-green, broadly-linear, 4 to 32 inches long, .4 to 1.2 inch wide, parallel-veined, glabrous above and below, clasping; margins with widely-spaced weak bristles; upper leaves progressively smaller.

Inflorescences:

Dense spherical to egg-shaped heads, each 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter and individually stalked; bracts 5-10, up to 3/5 inch long, spreading ascending, mostly entire, shorter than heads.

Flowers:

Small, inconspicuous; bracts among flowers, spiny, whitish; sepals 5; petals 5, white; stamens 5; styles 2, threadlike, protruding.

Fruits:

Dry, oblong, 1/6 to 1/3 inch long, angles with flattened scales.

Habitat:

Moist meadows, wet or dry prairies, and rocky open woodlands.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas.

Uses:

Native Americans and pioneers used this plant medicinally. An infusion was held in the mouth for toothaches and taken for kidney disorders and neuralgia and a decoction used to prevent whooping cough. An infusion of the root was used as a snakebite remedy and the stem and leaves were chewed for nose-bleeds.

Comments:

The name yuccifolium comes from "yucca" and Latin "folium" leaf - a leaf like yucca.

Button snakeroot