64 



AMERICAN ROOT DRUGS. 



BURDOCK. 



Arctium lappa L. 



Synonym. — Lappa major Gaertn. 

 Pharmacopceial name. — Lappa. 



Other common names. — Cockle-button, cuckold-dock, beggar's-buttons, hurr- 

 bur, stick-button, bardock. bardane. (Fig. 25.) 



Habitat and range. — Burdock, one of our most common weeds, was introduced 

 from the Old World. It grows along roadsides, in fields, pastures, and waste 



places, being very abundant in 

 the Eastern and Central States 

 and in some scattered localities 

 in the West. 



Description of plant. — Farmers 

 are only too well acquainted 

 with this coarse, unsightly weed. 

 During the first year of its 

 growth this plant, which is a bi- 

 ennial belonging to the aster 

 family ( Asteracete ) , produces 

 only a rosette of large, thin leaves 

 from a long tapering root. In 

 the second year a round, fleshy, 

 and branched stem is produced, 

 the plant when full grown meas- 

 uring from 3 to 7 feet in height. 

 This stem is branched, grooved, 

 and hairy, bearing very large 

 leaves, the 1 o w e r ones often 

 measuring 18 inches in length. 

 The leaves are placed alternately 

 on the stem, (jn long, solid, 

 deeply furrowed leafstalks ; 

 they are thin in texture, smooth 

 on the upper surface, pale and 

 woolly underueatli : u s u a 1 1 y 

 heart shaped, but sometimes 

 I'oundish or oval, with even, 

 wavy, or toothed margins. 



The flowers are not produced 

 until the second year, appearing from July until frost. Burdock flowers are inu- 

 ple. in small, clustered heads armed with hooked tips, and the spiny bui*s thus 

 formed are a great pest, attaching themselves to clothing and to the wool and 

 hair of animals. Burdock is a very prolific seed producer, one plant bearing as 

 many as 400.000 seeds. 



Description of root. — Burdock has ii l.uge. fleshy taproot (fig. l'.'>). which, 

 when dry. becomes scaly and wrinkled lengthwise and has a blackish brown or- 

 grayish brown color on the outside, hard, breaking with a short, somewliat 

 fleshy fracture, and showing the yellowish wood with a whitish spongy- center. 

 Sometimes there is a small, white, silky tuft at the top of the root, which is 

 formed by the remains of the bases of the leafstalks. The odor of the root is 

 weak and unpleasant, the taste mucilaginous, sweetish, and somewhat bitter. 

 107 



FiG. 25. — Burdock {Arctium lappa) , flowering branc)i and 

 root. 



