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Kansas
WildFlowers
Biology
Mr. Hager
Yucca
 Forage Value: Cattle and deer eat the flowers and immature
fruits, and bison will uproot plants and consume the roots.
 Uses: Native Americans used the roots in treatments of
stomachaches, dandruff, head lice, and sores. Fumes from the
burning roots helped subdue uncooperative horses. The flowers
and fruit pods were eaten raw or cooked, and the leaf fibers were
used to make cords, baskets, and sandals.
 Comments: Yucca roots can extend horizontally 30 feet. When
soaked or rubbed in water, the roots lather and can be used as a
soap substitute, giving it the common name "soapweed".
Wild Onion
 Distribution: East 1/2 of Kansas.
 Uses: Native Americans used Allium species as food, consuming
the bulbs raw, fried, or cooked in soups.
 Comments: Several varieties of Allium canadense occur in
Kansas, in some of which the flowers are replaced by bulblets.
When grazed, wild onion will give milk an onion or garlic flavor.
Bigroot Morning-glory
 Toxicity: The roots have been reported to be mildly toxic.
 Uses: Native Americans used the root as food. The root was also
used medicinally to treat coughs, headaches, rheumatism,
asthma, constipation, and abdominal pain.
 Comments: The tuber-like root can be up to 2 feet long and weigh
25 pounds. It is deep and difficult to excavate. Bigroot morningglory is related to the sweet potato or yam Ipomoea batatas.
Morning-glory alludes to the tendency of the flowers in some
Ipomoea species to open at night or in the morning.
White Aster
 Distribution: West half of Kansas.
 Uses: Native Americans in the Southwest used white aster
medicinally to treat snakebites, nose ailments, toothaches,
rheumatism, and swellings.
 Comments: White aster forms low patches from creeping roots.
Star of Bethlehem
 Distribution: East 1/3 of Kansas.
 Toxicity: All parts of this plant are poisonous. Consumption by
livestock can result in death.
 Comments: Star-of-Bethlehem grows in tufts. It is a native of
Europe that escaped from cultivation and now is naturalized in
North America.
White Clover
 Forage Value: Excellent forage value and high palatability, but
produces low yields. Upland game birds, wild turkeys, and small
mammals consume the leaves and grouse eat the seeds.
 Uses: Native Americans steeped the dried leaves and took the tea
to treat colds and coughs and steeped the flowers and used the
liquid as an eyewash.
 Comments: White clover adds nitrogen to the soil. It is often used
as a nectar source in the production of honey.
White Milkwort
 Distribution: Principally west 1/2 of Kansas.
 Uses: Native Americans used the roots of white milkwort to treat
earaches
 .Comments: The name "milkwort" comes from an ancient belief
that nursing mothers could increase lactation by eating plants of
this genus.
Wild Alfalfa
 Distribution: Throughout
 Kansas.Forage Value: Livestock do not particularly like it but will
consume its early growth or plants cured in prairie hay.
 Uses: The Lakota treated headaches with a tea made from the
roots and burned the plant to ward off mosquitoes.
 Comments: This native legume resembles alfalfa but has smaller
and narrower leaves that grow less densely. Wild alfalfa is fairly
drought resistant, with roots going down 10 feet.
Indian Blanket
 Habitat: Dry, open waste ground, disturbed sites, fields, and
roadsides, most abundant on sandy soils.
 Distribution: West 3/4 of Kansas.
 Uses: The Kiowa Indians believed the flowers brought good luck.
 Comments: Indian blanket flower is the state wildflower of
Oklahoma.
Prairie Wild Rose
 Distribution: Throughout Kansas.
 Uses: Rose hips contain high levels of vitamin C and can be
eaten raw, stewed, candied, or made into jelly. Many Plains Indian
tribes used the hips as an emergency food source.
 Comments: Prairie wild rose is resistant to drought due to roots
that can go down more than 20 feet.
Lamb’s Quarters: Pigweed
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Toxicity: May accumulate nitrates and be poisonous to livestock.
Uses: Many Native American tribes used lamb's quarters as a food source. They
used it raw or boiled as greens to prevent scurvy and cooked the leaves and stems
with beans to reduce intestinal gas. The seeds were ground and used to make
mush and bread. A tea brewed from the plant was used as a wash for sore limbs
and taken for diarrhea. A poultice of the plant was applied to burns. Livestock and
deer eat the young plants. Song birds and mourning doves eat the seeds.
Comments: Chenopodium is from the Greek "goose" and "little foot", alluding to
the leaf shape, and album is Latin for "white", in reference to the mealy coating.
Lamb's quarters is wind pollinated and can cause allergy symptoms. It can spread
aggressively. The seeds can remain viable for many years. The leaves and
inflorescence often turn reddish in late maturity.
Prairie Coneflower
 Distribution: Throughout Kansas.Forage Value: Livestock
consume prairie coneflower in its early-growth stage.
 Uses: Great Plains Indians brewed a tea from the leaves and
flowers and used the leaves and stems medicinally to treat poison
ivy, rattlesnake bites, headaches, and stomachaches. Prairie
coneflower is sometimes used in flower gardens.
Showy Goldenrod
 Origin: Native
 Uses: Native Americans used an infusion of the roots to treat
burns, difficult childbirths and lung hemorrages. The roots and
stalks were mixed with bear fat and utilized as a hair ointment.
The roots and stalks were boiled to make a warn poultice that was
appled to sore muscles and sprains.
 Comments: Showy goldenrod can become aggressive in moist
soil conditions. From Latin solido, "to heal" or "make whole",
alluding to the plant's medicinal qualities.
Smooth Aster
 Habitat: Dry open sites.
 Distribution: East third of Kansas.
 Uses: Native Americans used smoke from burning smooth aster
to revive an unconscious person.