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| Click to enlarge |
It is always exciting to find a new species on Bull Creek. We just found the first Rattlesnake Master on our place. You have to love a name like that.
The ball at the top of the stalk is made up of lots of tiny white flowers surrounded by sharp bracts (specialized leaves below the flower heads). The leaves are very distinctive with long parallel veins and long thin teeth which are curved like a rattlesnakes fangs.
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| Leaves with long hair-like teeth |
Rattlesnake Master
(Eryngium yuccifolium) almost resembles a yucca but it is actually a member of the carrot family. It is normally a tallgrass prairie species, although ours was in the woods along a north facing trail. This location may be related to the fact that most of the hills like ours were "barrens" several hundred years ago. Schoolcraft traveling through in 1818 consistently described the hills as open grasslands with only a few scattered trees.
According to
Illinoiswildflowers, Native Americans used the dried seedheads as rattles. It received its name from the pioneers who claimed the roots were an effective snakebite antidote. In addition to a garden plant, it is promoted for sale in websites like
herb-magic.com.
"Wear RATTLESNAKE MASTER, Red Pepper, and Salt in your Shoes, and you can walk with impunity where people have laid down crossing powders and where poisonous Snakes dwell. A living RATTLESNAKE MASTER plant near your front door -- especially the strong-smelling Eryngium foetidum -- is said to keep snakes away."
"We make no representations for RATTLESNAKE MASTER, and sell as a Curio only."
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| Timber Rattlesnake- Click to Enlarge |
Try telling that to this guy we found by our garage door last week! See him laughing? Me neither.
