This 334-acre area contains remnant prairie as well as some restored prairie. Several brushy draws dissect the property, and a few fishless ponds can be found near the draws.
Media
Safety Concerns
Name
Thorny
Scientific Name
Eryngium yuccifolium
Family
Apiaceae (carrots)
Description
Rattlesnake master is “an odd plant,” with “leaves like yucca, a head like a thistle, and second cousin to the carrot.” That’s how prairie conservationist John Madson summed it up!
Rattlesnake master is a spiny, herbaceous perennial with a branching inflorescence carried on a tall, straight stem.
The flowerheads are dense, ball-shaped, about 1 inch wide, and subtended by bracts. The individual flowers are tiny, greenish white, each with its own minute bract.
Blooms July–August.
The leaves are yucca- or agave-like, the lower ones to 3 feet long, the stem leaves much shorter, bluish, linear, parallel veined, with small spines along the margins.
Similar species: There are three species of Eryngium (eryngo) in Missouri, but the other two cannot be confused with rattlesnake master.
Rattlesnake is most likely to be confused with a yucca or a thistle:
- Yuccas in Missouri have tough, leathery leaves that grow only from the basal rosette (not on the stem).
- Thistles typically have toothed, pinnately lobed leaves and flowers clustered atop a receptacle subtended with numerous overlapping spiny bristles.
Other Common Names
Button Snakeroot
Size
Height: to 4 feet.
Where To Find
Scattered to common nearly statewide, but apparently absent from the southeastern (Bootheel) lowlands.
Habitat and Conservation
Occurs in upland prairies, glades, savannas, and rocky openings of moist to dry upland forests.
Rattlesnake master is one of the signature plants of the tallgrass prairie, a habitat that used to cover about half of our state before it was settled and the prairies turned into crop fields or allowed to become wooded.
Status
Native Missouri wildflower. Native prairie wildflower.
Human Connections
Rattlesnake master is used as an unusual ornamental in native gardens and landscaping. It attracts butterflies and other pollinators. It grows best in fairly dry, well-drained soils in full sun amid other upright plants that prevent the tall stems from flopping over. It transplants poorly due to its large taproot; it's best to start from seed or from plants purchased at a reputable native wildflower nursery.
Native Americans used this plant medicinally for treating a variety of ailments, as well as a source of fiber for cordage, bags, cloth, and sandals.
In folk medicine, an extract of the root was thought to be effective against snake venom, thus the common names.
Ecosystem Connections
A wide variety of insects, including bees, flies, wasps, beetles, and butterflies, visit the flowers for nectar. If you are wanting to photograph butterflies and other pollinators, take your camera to a prairie when the rattlesnake master is in bloom!
Finches apparently eat the seeds.
The plant’s spines probably discourage herbivorous mammals, and the long fibers in the leaves ward off leaf-eating insects.
Rattlesnake master is in the same family as carrots, parsley, celery, fennel, dill, cilantro, cumin, anise, Queen Anne's lace, and the deadly poisonous common water hemlock. With its condensed, ball-shaped flowerheads, it is an oddball in the "umbrella-flower" family.
Title
Media Gallery
Image
Credit
Jim Rathert
Right to Use
Photo by Jim Rathert, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
Image
Credit
Jim Rathert
Right to Use
Photo by Jim Rathert, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
Image
Credit
Jim Rathert
Right to Use
Photo by Jim Rathert, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
Image
Credit
Jim Rathert
Right to Use
Photo by Jim Rathert, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
Image
Credit
Jim Rathert
Right to Use
Photo by Jim Rathert, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
Image
Credit
Jim Rathert
Right to Use
Photo by Jim Rathert, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Title
Similar Species
Similar Species
Media
Media
Media
Media
Where to See Species
Harry S. Truman Reservoir management lands consist of 58,133 acres distributed around the reservoir in parts of Henry, Benton, Hickory, and St. Clair counties in west central Missouri.
This 120-acre area is comprised of native grass plantings and wooded draws. The area was originally purchased to support a remnant prairie chicken population.
Approximately 25 miles west of the Pony Express Conservation Area on the Missouri River is the original site of a settlement known as Blacksnake Hills, later to become the city of St.
Wa-Sha-She Prairie was purchased by The Nature Conservancy in 1973 with funds from Miss Katherine Ordway. The area is managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri
A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!