Culver's root

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Culver's root

Culver's root

Culver's root leaves

Culver's root

Culver's root flowers

Culver's root

Culver's root

Culver's root

Culver's root

Culver's root

Morphology

Stem

Erect, simple or branched above. Plants glabrous or sparsely to densely villous.

Leaves

Cauline, whorled with 3 to 7 leaves per node; petiole absent; blade lanceolate to elliptic, 1 to 4.3 inches long, .2 to 1.4 inches wide, margins finely toothed.

Inflorescence

Racemes, terminal.

Flower

Calyx (4-)5-lobed, .05 to .1 inch, lobes lanceolate; corolla white, sometimes pinkish, tubular to salverform, 4-lobed, .16 to .28 inch; stamens 2, exserted.

Fruit

Capsules ovoid to elliptic, .16 to .2 inch; seeds brown or reddish brown, elliptic, 0.1 to 0.3 inch.

Ecology

Habitat

Tallgrass prairies, glades.

Distribution

East 1/4 of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

In the 1800s, physicians used an infusion of the rhizome as a mild cathartic.