Native Medicinal Plants at the University of Kansas

Today I had the opportunity to tour the Native Medicinal Plant Research Program at the University of Kansas, a tour led by enthusiastic KU ethnobotanist Kelly Kindscher. I learned a number of things I didn't know before, such as that boneset, one of the white eupatoriums volunteering in our back yard, was used as a treatment by Appalachian people during the 1918 influenza epidemic--and worked, a good bit of the time.

I discovered a new (to me) echinacea: Topeka purple coneflower (echinacea atrorubens), which grows wild in only a few places in the Great Plains. The specimen here has a friend.

I also discovered that wild baptisia has even more interesting blooms than the cultivars I've grown in the past. Some of the specimens in the test garden have bicolor buds.

Even though our group wasn't able to get to the Rockefeller Prairie remnant as planned, a good time was had by all.