White snakeroot

Appearance

Plants are upright or sometimes ascending, growing to 1.5 m tall, producing single or multi-stemmed clumps. They are found in woods and brush thickets where they bloom mid to late summer or fall. The flowers are a clean white color and after blooming, small seeds with fluffy white tails are released to blow in the wind. This species is adaptive to different growing conditions and can be found in open shady areas with the open ground; it can be weedy in shady landscapes and in hedgerows. There are two different varieties: ''Ageratina altissima'' var. ''altissima'' and ''Ageratina altissima'' var. ''roanensis'' ; they differ in the length of the flower phyllaries and shape of the apices.

Naming

''Ageratina'' is derived from Greek meaning 'un-aging', in reference to the flowers keeping their color for a long time. This name was used by Dioscorides for a number of different plants. ''Altissima'' means 'the tallest', and probably indicates that this is the tallest species in its genus.

An older binomial name for this species is ''Eupatorium rugosum'', but the genus ''Eupatorium'' has undergone taxonomic revision by botanists, and a number of the species that were once included in it have been moved to other genera.

Defense

White snakeroot contains the toxin tremetol; when the plants are consumed by cattle, the meat and milk become contaminated with the toxin. When milk or meat containing the toxin is consumed, the poison is passed on to humans. If consumed in large enough quantities, it can cause tremetol poisoning in humans. The poisoning is also called milk sickness, as humans often ingested the toxin by drinking the milk of cows that had eaten snakeroot.

During the early 19th century, when large numbers of European Americans from the East, who were unfamiliar with snakeroot, began settling in the plant's habitat of the Midwest and Upper South, many thousands were killed by milk sickness. Notably, milk sickness was possibly the cause of death in 1818 of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln.

It was some decades before European Americans traced the cause to snakeroot, although today Dr. Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby is credited with identifying the plant in the 1830s. Legend has it that she was taught about the plant's properties by a Shawnee woman. The Shawnee woman's name is lost to history, but she and her people would have had deep knowledge of the herbs and plants in the area.

The plants are also poisonous to horses, goats, and sheep. Signs of poisoning in these animals include depression and lethargy, placement of hind feet close together or held far apart , nasal discharge, excessive salivation, arched body posture, and rapid or difficult breathing.


This plant may serve medicinal purposes. Root tea has been used to treat diarrhea, kidney stones, and fever. A root poultice can be used on snakebites.