{"id":354,"date":"2009-08-20T04:49:18","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T12:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/?p=354"},"modified":"2010-06-10T10:40:42","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T18:40:42","slug":"boneset-is-engagingly-perfoliate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/2009\/08\/boneset-is-engagingly-perfoliate\/","title":{"rendered":"Boneset is engagingly perfoliate"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_377\" style=\"width: 234px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-perfoliate-leaves.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-377\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-377\" title=\"Boneset-perfoliate-leaves\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-perfoliate-leaves-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"Boneset-perfoliate-leaves\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-perfoliate-leaves-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-perfoliate-leaves.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-377\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stem of boneset protrudes through the center of its perfoliate leaves. Photo by Ken Moore.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>By Ken Moore<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Boneset, <em>Eupatorium perfoliatum<\/em>, is one of those Native-American herbs reputed to heal all ailments.<\/p>\n<p>I like Paul Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observations (<em>Paul Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Plant Book<\/em>): \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Well, that just about says it all!<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Leaves wrapping around a stem are described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153perfoliate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thus the Latin species epithet, <em>perfoliatum<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s helpful when the scientific name describes a real physical characteristic; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true of very few plants.<\/p>\n<p>Back to the old-timer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the world of herbal medicinal lore. Some described remedies are effective and some may merely be lore. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use boneset when, years ago, I broke my wrist, but I do sometimes use herbal remedies \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at least the ones that work for me!<\/p>\n<p><em>Eupatoriums<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n<p>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 <em>Eupatoriums<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_376\" style=\"width: 228px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-flower-head-closeup.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-376\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-376\" title=\"Boneset-flower-head-closeup\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-flower-head-closeup-218x300.jpg\" alt=\"Boneset-flower-head-closeup\" width=\"218\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-flower-head-closeup-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/Boneset-flower-head-closeup.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 218px) 100vw, 218px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-376\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It takes a really close look to detect the tiny disc flowers of boneset. Photo by Ken Moore.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>At least two dozen species of <em>Eupatoriums<\/em>, generally called <em>thoroughworts<\/em>, 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 <em>perfoliate<\/em> leaves! Boneset commonly grows in ditches and wet meadows throughout the state.<\/p>\n<p>Tall stemmed Joe-Pye weed, with showy purple, dome-shape flower heads seen in roadside ditches these days, is also a <em>Eupatorium<\/em>. The botany types among you may be happy to know that Joe-Pye weed has recently been reclassified to <em>Eupatoriadelphus<\/em>. Tuck that melodious name away for the next time you want to impress your friends.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ken Moore Boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, is one of those Native-American herbs reputed to heal all ailments. I like Paul Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observations (Paul Green\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Plant Book): \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22],"tags":[487,484,485,486,439,488],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-moores-flora","category-summer","tag-black-eyed-susan","tag-boneset","tag-eupatorium-perfoliatum","tag-paul","tag-perfoliate","tag-thoroughworts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/flora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}