Medicinal Monday - Beautiful Broom Snakeweed

Today there are very few actual tangible items that remain from the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Among the plant items that remain is a sample of broom snakeweed.  Eventually, broom snakeweed was included in a two-volume set of new North American plants becoming part of the 226 specimens that make up the Lewis and Clark Herbarium.  Native Americans living in the western part of the United States had many medicinal uses for this perennial shrub that is part of the Daisey Family.

About Broom Snakeweed

This perennial subshrub is native to much of the western half of North America from Western Canada to northern Mexico and is found in open dry plains, arid grasslands, and in upland mountainous areas.  This bushy shrub grows upward 8 to 40 inches from a woody base.  The stems of this plant have short hairs and may be resinous and sticky to the touch.  

The plant has clusters of small bright yellow flowers that bloom at the end of the stems from mid.-July through September giving it a dome shape when flowering.  The plant reproduces from seeds that are light and spread by the wind, with most seeds falling beneath the parent plant.  It is a hardy shrub that is drought resistant that can be found in a variety of eco-environments from pinyon-juniper woodlands and desert shrublands to sagebrush grasslands.

Medicinal Uses of Snakeweed

Snakeweed was used by numerous Native American tribes for a variety of reasons.  The Blackfoot used the roots of broom snakeweed in boiling water and would inhale the herbal steam as a treatment for respiratory ailments. The Comanche had two uses for this plant.  They used the stems of snakeweed to make brooms for sweeping their residences and made a compound from the leaves of this plant to treat coughs.  The Dakota used a concentrate made from the flowers of this plant as a laxative for horses.  The Western Keres made a strong black infusion and used it as a rub to treat rheumatism, they would use the juice of the leaves to treat rattlesnake bites. The Isleta applied a poultice of moistened leaves to bruises. 

The Lakota would take a decoction of the plant for colds, coughs, and dizziness.  The Navajo would rub ashes of the plant on their bodies to treat headaches. They also chewed the plant and applied it to wounds, snakebite, and swollen areas caused by insect bites. Ceremonially, it was used in medicine applied to the ailing gods.  They would combine it with three-lobed sagebrush and add feathers that were dropped from a live crow and buzzard.  The Navajo, Ramah made a decoction of the root and used it to treat stomach aches and to treat snakebite.  The Tewa would burn this plant over hot coals to fumigate a mother and newborn child, it would also be used this way by women in labor.  The Zuni used an infusion of the whole plant for muscle aches.

Did You Know...

Broom Snakeweed can be toxic to livestock including goats, sheep, and cattle due to the presence of saponins.

Desert mules, birds and small mammals eat the seeds and use its foliage as protective cover.

This plant can produce more than 9,000 seeds a season, and these seeds can remain viable for up to two years.

Broom Snakeweed is among one of the most widespread and damaging rangeland weeds.

When the plant dies back its leaves and brittle stems make great kindling, giving this plant nicknames such as matchweed and matchbrush.