Eupatorium altissimum

Last updated

Tall thoroughwort
Eupatorium altissimum (3293238908).jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Eupatorium
Species:
E. altissimum
Binomial name
Eupatorium altissimum
L. not (L.) L.
Synonyms [2]
Synonymy
  • Eupatorium elatumSalisb. 1796, not validly published, not Steetz 1854
  • Eupatorium floridanumRaf. ex Torr. & A.Gray, not validly published
  • Eupatorium ramosumMill.
  • Eupatorium rupestreRaf.
  • Eupatorium saltuenseFernald
  • Uncasia altissima(L.) Greene

Eupatorium altissimum, with the common names tall thoroughwort and tall boneset, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the Asteraceae family with a native range including much of the eastern and central United States and Canada. It is a tall plant found in open woods, prairies, fields, and waste areas, with white flowers that bloom in the late summer and fall.

Contents

Description

Eupatorium altissimum is a perennial herb sometimes more than 150 cm (5 feet) tall.

Eupatorium altissimum flower Eupatorium altissimum (3292414635).jpg
Eupatorium altissimum flower

Leaves and stems are covered with whitish hairs. Leaves are opposite on the stem and either are sessile or have very short petioles. They are narrow, 5–12 centimetres (2–5 in) long and 8–30 millimetres (0.3–1.2 in) wide. [2] Leaves are lanceolate with 3 prominent veins underneath and teeth appearing only above the middle of the leaves. [3]

E. altissimum produces a large number of small dull white flower heads in a large flat-topped array at the top of the plant. Each head generally has 5 disc florets but no ray florets. [4]

The species is often confused with Brickellia eupatorioides (false boneset) because the flowers look similar and because both grow on limestone soils. However, the leaves of E. altissimum are opposite with 3 prominent veins, while the leaves of B. eupatoioides are alternate with 1 prominent vein. Also, E. altissimum flower heads consist of 5 florets, while the flower heads of B. eupatorioides have 6 to 15 florets. [5]

Taxonomy

Eupatorium altissimum is part of Eupatorium even when that genus is defined narrowly to include about 40 species of mostly white-flowered plants of North America, Asia, and Europe. [6] [7]

Distribution and habitat

E. altissimum is native to eastern and central North America, from Ontario in the north, Nebraska in the west, Texas and the Florida Panhandle in the south, and Massachusetts in the east. [8] It almost always grows on limestone soils in prairies, open woods, fields, and neglected areas. [3]

Ecology

The plant blooms from August to October. [3] It attracts various pollinators and is a larval host plant for Schinia trifascia (three-lined flower moth). [9]

It can hybridize with Eupatorium serotinum . [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Silphium</i> (genus) Genus of plants

Silphium is a genus of North American plants in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae.

<i>Liatris</i> Genus of flowering plants

Liatris, commonly known as gayfeather and blazing star is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Eupatorieae within the family Asteraceae native to North America. Some species are used as ornamental plants, sometimes in flower bouquets. They are perennials, surviving the winter and resprouting underground corms.

<i>Eupatorium</i> Genus of plants

Eupatorium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, containing from 36 to 60 species depending on the classification system. Most are herbaceous perennials growing to 0.5–3 m (1.6–9.8 ft) tall. A few are shrubs. The genus is native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Most are commonly called bonesets, thoroughworts or snakeroots in North America. The genus is named for Mithridates Eupator, king of Pontus.

<i>Helianthus pauciflorus</i> Species of sunflower

Helianthus pauciflorus, called the stiff sunflower, is a North American plant species in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread across the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Lakes region, and naturalized in scattered locations in the eastern United States and in much of southern Canada.

<i>Liatris pycnostachya</i> Species of flowering plant

Liatris pycnostachya, the prairie blazing star, cattail gayfeather, Kansas gayfeather, or cattail blazing star, is a perennial plant in the Asteraceae family that is native to the tallgrass prairies of the central United States.

<i>Eupatorium perfoliatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Eupatorium perfoliatum, known as common boneset or just boneset, is a North American perennial plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a common native to the Eastern United States and Canada, widespread from Nova Scotia to Florida, west as far as Texas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Manitoba. It is also called agueweed, feverwort, or sweating-plant. In herbal medicine, the plant is a diaphoretic, or an agent to cause sweating. It was introduced to American colonists by natives who used the plant for breaking fevers by means of heavy sweating, and commonly used to treat fever by the African-American population of the southern United States. The name "boneset" comes from the use of the plant to treat dengue fever, which is also called "break-bone fever." It is nearly always found in low, wet areas.

<i>Eutrochium purpureum</i> Species of flowering plant

Eutrochium purpureum, commonly known as purple Joe-Pye weed or sweetscented joe pye weed, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to eastern and central North America, from Ontario east to New Hampshire and south as far as Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.

<i>Eutrochium</i> Genus of flowering plants

Eutrochium is a North American genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. They are commonly referred to as Joe-Pye weeds. They are native to the United States and Canada, and have non-dissected foliage and pigmented flowers. The genus includes all the purple-flowering North American species of the genus Eupatorium as traditionally defined, and most are grown as ornamental plants, particularly in Europe and North America.

<i>Erigeron strigosus</i> Species of plant

Erigeron strigosus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names prairie fleabane, common eastern fleabane, and daisy fleabane.

<i>Conoclinium</i> Genus of flowering plants

Conoclinium, the mistflowers, is a genus of four species of herbaceous perennial flowering plants, native to North America. They are 0.5 to 2 metres tall, and have blue to purple or violet flowers.

<i>Helianthus grosseserratus</i> Species of plant

Helianthus grosseserratus, commonly known as sawtooth sunflower or thick-tooth sunflower, is a perennial sunflower in the family Asteraceae, with a large flowering head (inflorescence).

<i>Eupatorium serotinum</i> Species of flowering plant

Eupatorium serotinum, also known as late boneset or late thoroughwort, is a fall-blooming, perennial, herbaceous plant native to North America.

<i>Eupatorium hyssopifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Eupatorium hyssopifolium, also known as hyssopleaf thoroughwort, is a fall-blooming herbaceous plant native to North America. Like other members of the genus Eupatorium it has inflorescences containing a large number of very small flower heads, each with 5 white disc florets but no ray florets. At 0.5 to one meter tall, it is towards the shorter end of the range of heights found in Eupatorium species.

<i>Eupatorium rotundifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Eupatorium rotundifolium, commonly called roundleaf thoroughwort, is a North American species of plant in the family Asteraceae. It native to the eastern and central United States, in all the coastal states from Maine to Texas, and inland as far as Missouri and the Ohio Valley. It is found in low, moist habitats such as wet savannas and bogs.

<i>Eupatorium sessilifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Eupatorium sessilifolium, commonly called upland boneset or sessile-leaved boneset, is a North American plant species in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the eastern and central United States, found from Maine south to North Carolina and Alabama, and west as far as Arkansas, Kansas, and Minnesota.

<i>Ageratina luciae-brauniae</i> Species of flowering plant

Ageratina luciae-brauniae is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names Lucy Braun's snakeroot and rockhouse white snakeroot. It is native to the eastern United States, where it is limited to the Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky and Tennessee. It may also occur in South Carolina but these reports are unconfirmed.

<i>Ratibida pinnata</i> Species of flowering plant

Ratibida pinnata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names pinnate prairie coneflower, gray-head coneflower, yellow coneflower, and prairie coneflower. It is native to the central and eastern United States and Ontario in Canada.

<i>Conoclinium coelestinum</i> Species of flowering plant

Conoclinium coelestinum, commonly known as blue mistflower, mistflower, wild ageratum, or blue boneset, is a North American species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It was formerly classified in the genus Eupatorium, but phylogenetic analyses in the late 20th century research indicated that that genus should be split, and the species was reclassified in Conoclinium.

Eupatorium novae-angliae, commonly called New England boneset, New England justiceweed or New England thoroughwort, is a rare and endangered North American species in the family Asteraceae. It is found only in 4 counties in southern New England. The species is listed as endangered species in both states.

<i>Symphyotrichum shortii</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to North America

Symphyotrichum shortii, commonly called Short's aster, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is primarily found in interior areas east of the Mississippi River. Its natural habitat is in thin rocky soils of woodlands and thickets often around limestone bluffs. It is common throughout much of its range, although it is generally restricted to intact natural communities.

References

  1. "Eupatorium altissimum". NatureServe Explorer. NatureServe. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  2. 1 2 "Eupatorium altissimum L." www.worldfloraonline.org.
  3. 1 2 3 Denison, Edgar (2017). Missouri Wildflowers (Sixth ed.). Conservation Commission of the State of Missouri. p. 50. ISBN   978-1-887247-59-7.
  4. 1 2 Siripun, Kunsiri Chaw; Schilling, Edward E. (2006). "Eupatorium altissimum". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 21. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  5. "Eupatorium altissimum". iowaplants.com.
  6. Gregory J. Schmidt and Edward E. Schilling (2000). "Phylogeny and biogeography of Eupatorium (Asteraceae: Eupatorieae) based on nuclear ITS sequence data". American Journal of Botany. 87 (5): 716–726. doi: 10.2307/2656858 . JSTOR   2656858. PMID   10811796.
  7. Siripun, Kunsiri Chaw; Schilling, Edward E. (2006). "Eupatorium". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 21. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  8. "USDA Plants Database". plants.usda.gov.
  9. Robinson, Gaden S.; Ackery, Phillip R.; Kitching, Ian; Beccaloni, George W.; Hernández, Luis M. (2023). "HOSTS - The Hostplants and Caterpillars Database at the Natural History Museum". www.nhm.ac.uk. doi:10.5519/havt50xw.