COMPOSITAE 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



WHITE SNAKEROOT 



Eupaiorium urticaefolium Reichard 



White Snakeroot is the plant that causes "milk sickness." 

 When cows eat this plant they become ill and produce poison- 

 ous milk which will sicken or kill persons who drink it. Horses 

 and other animals have 

 also suffered illness or 

 death from eating this 

 plant. It is often con- 

 fused with some of 

 the close relatives de- 

 scribed on preceding 

 pages, but it should be 

 readily identified by its 

 flowers and leaves. 



The White Snakeroot 

 usually grows in open 

 woods or on partly 

 wooded slopes and banks 

 from New Brunswick to 

 Nebraska, south to Flor- 

 ida and Louisiana. It 

 grows 1-4 feet high and 

 is commonly smooth, but 

 the usually much 

 branched stem is occa- 

 sionally more or less cov- 

 ered with short soft hairs. 

 The 3-nerved and veiny 

 leaves are broadly ovate, 

 3-6 inches long, acumi- 

 nate at the apex, and 

 coarsely and rather sharply toothed; all are opposite and thin 

 and all except the very small ones at the top are petioled. 



The blooming season is July to late autumn. The inflorescence 

 is loose and consists of many heads with 10-30 tubular and pure 

 white flowers in each. The receptacle is flat. The bracts ot the 

 involucre are narrow, usually about the same length and are 

 ranged in i row, but sometimes a few on the outside are shorter. 



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