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Medicinal Plants - Dry Prairie

On this page you will find a listing of all the plants studied in the dry prairie. The links to the plant pages will open in a new window. The letter in square brackets is the accessible keyboard shortcut.

Arrowleaf Balsamroot [A] Balsamorhiza sagittata (Pursh) Nutt

Arrowleaf Balsamroot plants look something like sunflowers with their long yellow rays of petals and yellow centers, but are much smaller, with the flowers growing to just 5-10 cm across. The flowers come out in late June and early July on the open slopes above the camas, or in prairie grasslands and open woods. The leaves are silvery grey and have a very distinct arrow shape and in fact, the whole plant is covered with tiny hairs that give it that silver grey look....

Common Gaillardia [C] Gaillardia aristata Pursh

Common Gaillardia is a tall plant with hairy, greyish green leaves that are longer at the bottom, then get smaller as they get closer to the flower. This plant with its large (10 cm) yellow flowers is also called the Brown-eyed Susan because of its brown center. It blooms in the late summer months of July and August, growing along the roads and railway tracks and in dry, upland areas....

Common Yarrow [C] Achillea millefolium L.

Common Yarrow is sometimes thought of as the medicine chest of the prairies because it can be used to heal many things. If you make a tea of the leaves and flowers, the tea can be rubbed on your sore stomach. Drink it if you have gas. It is good to drink when your throat is sore. Use the tea to rub on other sore body parts or mush up the leaves and put the mush on swollen area....

Indian Breadroot [I] Psoralea esculenta

Indian Breadroot is a medium tall plant (15-30 centimetres) that grows on high prairie grassland areas. This plant's light bluish-purple flowers bloom in June and July. The flowers each have five petals of about 12 millimetres long and grouped together like a stretched-out, oval-shaped head of clover. The leaves are coarse, hairy and bright green in a palm shape with 5 leaflets on each....

Indian Tobacco [I] Nicotiana quadrivalvis Pursh

Native peoples have smoked tobacco for praying, for pleasure and as medicine for a very long time. The kind of tobacco that our ancestors smoked was very different than the tobacco that you buy in the store. Indian Tobacco seeds were planted in a ritual and while praying by the Tobacco Society. When this tobacco was picked, it came from straight from the land, and although other plants might have been added to it, chemicals and preservatives were not....

Louisiana Sagewort [L] Artemisia ludoviciana Nutt.

Our people call Louisiana Sage Wort - Man Sage. You will find a lot of it, on the prairie and on dry open soils. Elder Carolla Calf Robe told us that it grows a lot on the north end of the reserve. It grows from 30 cm to a meter tall with a hairy stem. The leaves have pointed tips and are hairy too. The entire plant is silvery green. You have to look really closely to see the yellowish flowers with white hairs....

Lupine [L] Lupinus sp.

WARNING: All parts of lupines can be toxic if consumed in large quantities. The lupine, or Wolf turnip as it is sometimes called, is a tall (30-60 cm) plant that grows in open areas on high, dry, sandy plains. The leaves are dark green on top and lighter underneath, and arranged with 6-8 leaves, which can be 2.5-5 cm in length, attached together like the fingers of your hand....

Nineleaf Biscuitroot [N] Lomatium triternatum (Pursh) Coult. & Rose

WARNING! Many biscuitroot species look like the very poisonous wild Parsley family plants. Positive identification must be made before eating or drinking this plant in any form. Do not ingest during pregnancy. Nineleaf Biscuitroot grows in dry, rocky, often steep places and on dry patches on the prairie. It has a hollow stem with bright green leaves that look like parsley....

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Nodding Onion [N] Allium cernuum

WARNING: Nodding Onion can look like Death Camas when first growing. They both grow in the same areas. Nodding onion has a distinct onion odor. A mistake could be fatal. Nodding Onion is also known as Prairie Funny Vine. It grows at the edges of scrubby patches and on the open prairie. It has lots of medium, green, narrow, circular leaves and the flowers are white to pinkish purple....

Pasque Flower [P] Anemone patens L. var wolfgangiana (Bess) Koch

WARNING: The plants contain oil that is a powerful irritant. It is known to slow the heart when ingested and it is considered poisonous. Pasqueflowers, or Prairie Crocus, are one of the first flowers of spring on our meadows and sandy hillsides. Sometimes you see their pale blue, mauve, white or light yellow heads peak up from the snow. They bloom from mid-April to mid-May....

Pasture Sagewort [P] Artemisia fridgida

The fresh gray green leaves of Woman's Sage is used by our people to plug a bleeding nose. Woman's Sage is good to make into a tea when you are throwing up. A tea helps you if you have an aching liver. When it is dried, it is sometimes used in steam bath or burned as incense. Our elders may have used the fresh leaves of Woman's Sage as toilet paper when they lived on the land or as menstrual pads....

Prickly Pear Cactus [P] Opuntia polyacantha

The Prickly Pear Cactus grows in dry and gravelly soil that is south- facing. It has lots of waxy yellow flowers that are 5-7 cm across. They bloom between May and July. The plant really has no leaves and the stem is actually a flat beaver-tail shape. The stem can be eaten but Elder Narcisse Blood says that the best part is the fruit, which can be eaten fresh when peeled....

Rush Skeletonplant [R] Lygodesmia juncea (Pursh) D. Don ex Hook.

The Rush Skeletonplant got its name because it looks like a skeleton of tough stems topped by a few flower heads. The stems are fat, gray, and like the milkweed, release a milky juice when broken. This plant has tough roots that go very deep to help it grow in light sandy soils and dry uplands. The upper leaves on the plant are just like scales and the lower ones are long and skinny, about 5 cm long and 2 mm wide....

Silverweed Cinquefoil [S] Argentina anserina (L.) Rydb.

Silverweed Cinquefoil belongs to the rose family of plants. They colour the places they grow with their bright yellow, five-petalled flowers. Cinquefoil is French for 'five leaves', and that is how this flower is arranged. It grows at the edge of sloughs and other wet places, in barnyards roadside ditches, and in low meadow areas. One flower (up to 2....

Spiny Phlox [S] Phlox hoodii Richards

Spiny Phlox grows close to the earth on the open prairie and on dry eroded hillsides. It does not grow more than 2.5 cm tall. If you crouch down, you will see that the flowers are pale violet or white, with five lobes. The leaves are 6-10 cm and are gray green and awl shaped. The flowers bloom in May. A tea of the plant can be used as a mild laxative when you are constipated....

Three Flowered Avens [T] Geum triflorum Pursh

Elder Carolla Wolf Child told us that Three Flowered Avens grow all over the reserve in abundance. She told us to look for them in wooded areas and on the prairie. The bluish green leaves grow close to the ground. They look like a strawberry leaf and have a felted touch. The flowers are on top of a stem about 15 cm off of the ground. The reddish-purple flowers bloom from the middle of June to July and they don't last long....

Wild Onion [W] Allium sp.

The wild onion is found in our dry prairie meadows and on hillsides. It grows to be 7-30 cm tall with grass-like stems and narrow, grooved, circular leaves. The wild onion flowers in May to June and the flowers are white with pink or pale pink. You may just think of the onion as something you can use fresh or dried to flavor soups or meat. However, it is also an important medicine....

Wild Rose [W] Rosa sp.

Wild rose bushes grow on the open prairie,in uncultivated fields and along roads.It grows to be about 30- 120 cm high. The smooth,green, shiny leaves look pretty with the pink flowers that bloom from May to August. When the petals fall away, a red globe shaped berry appears that is about 12 mm in diameter. The berry is called a rose hip and has lots and lots of seeds....

Wild Tomato [W] Solanum triflorum. Nutt

WARNING: Wild Tomato is poisonous and can cause death if consumed in large quantities. Wild Tomato, also known as gopher food, grows low to the ground in dry areas that have been disturbed, like building sites or by gopher holes. The plants can grow together to form mats of about 2 metres. The hairy, dark green leaves are oval-shaped and about 5-10 cm long....

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