BUTTON SNAKEROOT
File Size: 87 KB
 
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
115 KB
Woodson County, Kansas
Button snakeroot flowers
77 KB
Woodson County, Kansas
Button snakeroot inflorescence
113 KB
Woodson County, Kansas
Button snakeroot
118 KB
Woodson County, Kansas
Button snakeroot leaves
144 KB
Woodson County, Kansas
Button snakeroot inflorescence
58 KB
Cherokee County, Kansas
Button snakeroot inflorescence
62 KB
Cherokee County, Kansas
Button snakeroot inflorescence
42 KB
Cherokee County, Kansas
Button snakeroot inflorescence
66 KB
Mon-Shon Prairie, Barton County, Missouri