Eupatorium rugosum “Chocolate”

Chocolate Boneset, White Snakeroot
Eupatorium rugosum “Chocolate” (also known as Ageratina altissima)
Type: Perennial
Exposure: Sun / Part Shade
Water: Regular

If you go back to August 12th, you’ll find a post for Joe Pye Weed, a monster of a perennial with pink-ish flowers. Today’s plant is a relative.

Growing to 4ft (1.2m) tall and 3ft (90cm) wide, this guy features attractive, sharply toothed leaves which are colored a purplish-brown hue during the spring and summer, giving rise to the “chocolate” label. Rounded clusters of small, pure white autumn flowers are held above the foliage atop purple stems. These will reach 6in (15cm) across and they arrive at about the same time that the foliage is fading from its chocolate color back to a bronzy-green. Although they will tolerate shade, they tend to color best with some sun.

The name Snakeroot refers to the folk medicine practice of making a poultice from the roots to treat snakebites (generally not a huge problem around here). The roots have also been used to make a tea to treat diarrhea, kidney stones, and fever. The Boneset thing comes from its use as a remedy for a strain of flu that was known as “Bone-Break Fever. But be warned that the plant contains the toxin tremetol, rendering it poisonous to livestock. Also, the toxin can be passed through the milk of cows that have fed on it, causing a disease called milk sickness, which is believed to have have killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother.

So please, don’t eat your Chocolate Boneset.

Summer foliage photo: www.plantify.co.uk

Cheers,

John