Friday, October 9, 2009

bone breaker


How’s your head bone?

The genus “Eupatorium” contains between 36 to 60 species depending on who does the classifying. Native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, the flowering plants are commonly called bonesets, thoroughworts or snakeroots.

Boneset is the painful one because the plants were once used to treat “bonebreaker” fever. Also known as Dengue fever, the illness is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes and causes a fever and headache that feels like the skull is going to break apart.

Ouch!!

- Photo taken in South Knoxville

2 comments:

Angie said...

I've been wondering the last few weeks 'what is this plant?!'. Thanks for the ID.
Angie in Mooresburg, TN

A Colorful World said...

I always thought boneset must have been used for helping with bone breaks some way. Thanks so much for the clarification!