Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WILD QUININE

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Parthenium integrifolium L.

[=Parthenium hispidum Raf.]

Wah Sha She Prairie, Barton County, Missouri

Perennial

Height: 12-24(-40) inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Whole-leaf feverfew.

Stems:

Erect, usually branched.

Leaves:

Usually cauline, sometimes also basal, alternate; petiole present on basal and lower cauline leaves, absent on upper cauline leaves; blade ovate to lanceolate, 1.2 to 13.75 inches long, .8 to 4.7 inches wide, margins usually crenate to serrate, sometimes coarsely toothed or somewhat lobed proximally, surfaces hispid to scabrous.

Inflorescences:

Heads in compact, corymb-like to panicle-like arrays; peduncles .04 to .5 inch.

Flowers:

Phyllaries: 10(-16) in 2 series, distinct; outer ones ovate to lanceolate, .1 to .2 inch, inner ones orbiculate, .16 to .24 inch. Receptacle flat to conic. Ray florets 5(-6), pistillate, fertile; corolla white or yellowish white, ligules ovate to orbiculate, .04 to .08 inch. Disk florets 15-35, staminate; corolla white or yellowish white, funnelform, lobes 5.

Fruits:

Achenes black, obovoid, .12 to .16 inch, often compressed; pappus absent but sometimes 2-4 pappus-like scales near apex of achene.

Habitat:

Tallgrass prairies, open oak-hickory woodlands.

Distribution:

Two varieties occur in Kansas. Var. hispidum (Raf.) Mears occurs in Butler, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, and Greenwood counties and var. integrifolium occurs only in Cherokee County.

Origin:

Native

Uses:

When quinine was unavailable, the flowering inflorescence of was sometimes used to treat malaria. Native Americans applied a poultice of fresh leaves to burns and soaked swollen feet in an infusion of the plant.

Wild quinine inflorescence