Boneset is engagingly perfoliate
By Ken Moore
Boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, is one of those Native-American herbs reputed to heal all ailments.
I like Paul Green’s observations (Paul Green’s Plant Book): “A tea from its leaves or roots made a fine tonic and it was good for all kinds of diseases, including urinary troubles and female disorders. It was said that in the old, old days the doctors made bandages of the crushed leaves and wrapped then around a broken leg or arm to help it heal better, whence the name.â€
Well, that just about says it all!
Except, I have a recollection from some old-timer that the boneset name originated from observing the leaves. The opposite leaves completely wrap around the stem, which actually protrudes right up through the middle of the leaves.
Leaves wrapping around a stem are described as “perfoliate,†thus the Latin species epithet, perfoliatum. It’s helpful when the scientific name describes a real physical characteristic; that’s true of very few plants.
Back to the old-timer’s explanation. A plant leaf so tightly joined at the center suggested that the plant had some special powers to heal broken bones or at least assist in pulling the pieces back together. Well, that’s the world of herbal medicinal lore. Some described remedies are effective and some may merely be lore. I didn’t use boneset when, years ago, I broke my wrist, but I do sometimes use herbal remedies – at least the ones that work for me!
Eupatoriums is a big genus in the composite (aster) family. Remember from past Flora columns that the composite family is a huge assemblage of plants characterized by a few to hundreds of little flowers tightly compressed into a flowering head.
A typical composite is the Black-eyed Susan with a compact head of tiny tube (disc) flowers, surrounded by a ring of showy ray flowers. Other composites, like dandelions, are tight clusters of only ray flowers and still others, like the Eupatoriums, are a broad, usually rounded-flat top arrangement of hundreds of clusters of only tiny disc flowers. It takes a really close look to zero in on the individual disc flowers. Those threadlike structures extending from the tops of the flowers are the ripe stigmas of the female flower part, the pistil, reaching to grab some pollen from unsuspecting pollinators scrambling around on the flower heads.
At least two dozen species of Eupatoriums, generally called thoroughworts, are flowering in fields and along roadsides these last weeks of summer. The easiest of the white-flowering ones to identify is the boneset, because of those perfoliate leaves! Boneset commonly grows in ditches and wet meadows throughout the state.
Tall stemmed Joe-Pye weed, with showy purple, dome-shape flower heads seen in roadside ditches these days, is also a Eupatorium. The botany types among you may be happy to know that Joe-Pye weed has recently been reclassified to Eupatoriadelphus. Tuck that melodious name away for the next time you want to impress your friends.
Regardless what name you select, boneset, like Joe-Pye weed, is a beautiful garden plant, but few gardeners consider boneset for their perennial border or wild garden. They should; those white flower heads are beautiful and those perfoliate leaves, wrapping around the stems, are an engaging accent throughout the growing season.
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