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Apiaceae Family - "Cow Parsnip"
Heracleum from the Greek for a kind of plant like Hercules, thought to be for this species' hardiness and size. Greek legends say Hercules also used this species as a medicine. Pliny the Elder considered this species to be of the highest medical importance.
Very leafy plant can grow to 10 feet with a massive stem and leaves up to a foot across. Distinctive odor; some say downright rank. Tiny white flowers on umbels up to 8 inches across. Common throughout the Tallgrass Region.
Widely used by Native Americans as a root tea for colic, cramps, headaches, sore throats, colds, coughs and flu; poultices used for sores, bruises, swelling, rheumatic joints, and boils or other skin eruptions. Early settlers used it as a tea for indigestion, gas, asthma and epilepsy. The root does contain psoralen, a compound being investgated for use in treating psoriasis, leukemia and AIDS. The psoralen in this plant can cause blisters on sensitive skinned individuals. Foliage is poisonous to livestock.
