Boneset
Eupatorium perfoliatum
Family Asteraceae

Characteristics:
* Flowers white, in round to flat-topped clusters of fuzzy heads.
* Leaves veiny, wrinkled, hairy, opposite and fused around the stem; the fusion makes the plant perfoliate.
* Height: 1-3'.

Natural History:
* Flowers July - October.
* Habitat: Swamps, thickets, and low ground.
* Range: Southern Canada and the United States.
* Native.

Connections!
* "To one whose childhood was passed in the country some fifty years ago the name and sight of this plant is fraught with unpleasant memories. The attic or woodshed was hung with bunches of the dried herb, which served so many grewsome warnings against wet feet, or any over-exposure which might result in cold or malaria. A certain Nemesis, in the shape of a nauseous draught which was poured down the throat under the name of 'boneset tea,' attended such a catastrophe. The Indians first discovered its virtues, and named the plant ague-weed. Possibly this is one of the few herbs whose efficacy has not been overrated. Dr. Millspaugh says: 'It is prominently adapted to sure a disease peculiar to the South, known as break-bone fever, and it is without doubt from this property that the name boneset was derived.'"
-Mrs. William Dana Starr, in "How to Know the Wild Flowers," 1900