Boneset, Thoroughwort, Eupatorium perfoliatum L., Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Boneset	Eupatorium perfoliatum L.	Aster (Composite)	Woodland - Bog	Late Summer to Autumn
Other names and notes	(Thoroughwort). A plant of sunny, moist areas, reaching up to 5 feet high, the stem with long hairs, with 9 to 23 small white flowers in each of the broad branching clusters at the top of the stem. Leaves are opposite, toothed, and with a wide base distinctively pierced by the stem. The species name, perfoliatum, is Latin and refers to the stem piercing the leaf. For a complete discussion of the genus name, Eupatorium, click the "More" button below. Its medicinal use in treating what was known as “break bone fever” (dengue) led to the common name "Boneset".


Early flower buds of late July	Above and below: Flowers of early August	The distinctive leaves

Below: A flower cluster in full bloom in mid-August

Notes: This plant is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on Sept. 6, 1907. It is native to most of the counties in Minnesota with most exceptions being in the SW quadrant. Its range in North America is the eastern 2/3rds of the continent.

Eloise Butler wrote of this plant: "Three sister composites - eupatoriums - grow together in the meadows. The homeliest, E. perfoliatum, has rather a coarse aspect, and its dull gray flowers scarcely command a glance from the passerby. Yet, under closer observation, they will not fail to please and will not be ignored when properly arranged in a vase. Every natural growth has a beauty of form, if not of color, that needs only to be seen to be appreciated. As Emerson said, 'We are immersed in beauty, but our eyes have no clear vision.' Folks brought up in the old-fashioned way have a bitter memory of this eupatorium under the name of Throughwort or Boneset, which in the spring was dealt out copiously to every member of the household, as a thorough remedy to prevent or to remove influenzal bone aches and, in general, 'to purify the blood.' '" Published Aug. 6, 1911, Minneapolis Sunday Tribune.

For plant lore and medicinal uses of this plant click the "more" button.

Return to -- Site Plan/Archive --or-- List of Common Plant Names -- or -- List of Scientific Names -- or --Home Page

References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

061111