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Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Prime
Season
Culver's Root
Veronicastrum virginicum (L.) Farw.
Figwort
Upland
Early Summer to Late Summer
Other names and notes
(Culver's-physic, Black Root). An easy to spot plant, it grows up to seven feet in height with bright white flower spikes consisting of many small tubular shaped 4-part flowers that have two protruding stamens. All but the most immature plants will have several smaller flower spikes rising from the stem below the central spike. Leaves are in whorls of 3 to 7. The plant will usually be found in groups. The plant can make an excellent back border specimen in the home garden. A single stem plant will by the third year provide a clump of 8 to 12 stems. It tolerates moist soil and the flower stems are good for cutting. Besides the native white color, there are several cultivars available in the nursery trade that have other colored flowers. The common name refers to Dr. Culver. (See lore below.) The root is toxic. The scientific name is derived as follows: "Veronicastrum" - after St. Veronica; "virginicum" - of Virginia. It was formerly classified by Nutthall as Leptandra virginica and prior to that it was placed by Linnaeus in the genus Veronica which is not the same as Veronicastrum.
Culver's Root
Culvers Root
Culver's Root leaf
Above and Below: First blooms will appear in early July, with main display in late July and continuing into August.
 
Culver's Root Group
  

Notes: This plant is indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued it on Sept. 6, 1907. She obtained additional plants in 1911. It is native throughout Minnesota except in counties that are west central, north central and Cook. It is widely found in the eastern half of North America, east of a line running from Manitoba to Texas. It is on a "threatened" list in several New England States. For additional information, lore, toxicity and uses click here: More

Eloise Butler wrote of this plant: "To subdue the brilliant orange and reds of the lilies and composites, Mother Nature has planted among them with judicious and generous hand various white flowers, as Veronica virginica, (the old botanical name) with feathery spires of bloom, some branched like candelabras, topping slender stems, clothed at intervals with whorls of narrow, pointed leaves. It is popularly called Culver’s Root, or Culver’s Physic, because one of that name extracted a specific from the root." Published in the Minneapolis sunday Tribune July 16, 1911.

  
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.  
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