White snakeroot and Abraham Lincoln?

What do this pretty white fall wildflower and Abraham Lincoln have in common? In September, white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) begins to bloom in eastern forests. On October 5, 1818, 9-year-old Abraham Lincoln lost his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, to a condition called milk sickness.

The cause of the sickness was unknown at that time. Sometimes the population of entire villages was affected by the disease. The symptoms caused misery that included nausea, vomiting, constipation and many sufferers fell into a coma and died. Many thousands of people who lived on the U.S. frontier died from the disease during the 1700s and early 1800s.

The mysterious cause of the sickness was finally revealed by a midwife named Anna Pierce. She was determined to find what caused the sickness after she lost her mother and sister-in-law to the disease. A Shawnee woman had showed her white snakeroot. When she fed it to the farm animals, they came down with “trembles,” as milk sickness shows up in animals. If cattle, sheep or goats eat white snakeroot, they concentrate a poison called tremetol in their meat and milk so people become poisoned if they drink the contaminated milk.

White snakeroot grows in hardwood forests and when cattle were confined to fenced pastures, the incidence of the disease became less prevalent.

Although her actual burial place is unknown, Nancy Hanks Lincoln is memorialized with a beautiful white marker in a small cemetery at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. This park was the site of the Lincoln cabin and farm during the years of 1816 to 1830.

The plant is a member of the Composite Family, each cluster is made up of tiny white individual flowers. Like other composite flowers, they are good nectar producers and an important food for insect pollinators. If you hike in the woods during September and October, enjoy this pretty wildflower, but remember its deadly legacy.

Kris Light photographs wildflowers, animals and anything of interest with many of her best photos used in her website: click Search All Galleries to see photos. Her Outreach Science classes are available for public, private and homeschool groups through the AMSE. Kris welcomes questions at email.