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Blazing Star

Scientific Names


• Liatris squarrosa L.
• Composite family

Common Names

Blazing star root
Rattlesnake-master
Scaly blazing star
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Parts Usually Used

Root
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Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Scaly blazing star is a native North American perennial plant; it resembles the marsh blazing star but much smaller, has a tuberous root that produces the stem growing only as high as 2 feet and the leaves to 6 inches long. The alternate linear leaves are dotted, the lower of which are longer. The flower spike is also smaller, made up of blue-purple florets, appears from June to September.

Other varieties: Rough blazing-star (L. aspera); Marsh blazing star (L. spicata); Tall blazing star (L. scariosa); also called Rattlesnake master, Eryngo (Eryngium aquaticum L.); A tiny plant called Blazing star (Mentzelia albicaulis) is also known to the Paiutes as the Gravy Plant, (called Ku-Ha).
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Where Found

Found in dry, open woods, clearings, and fields from Ontario to Pennsylvania and Florida, and westward to South Dakota, Nebraska, and Texas.
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Medicinal Properties

Diuretic
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Legends, Myths and Stories

Star grass (Aletris farinosa) is sometimes called blazing star.
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Uses

Used for gargle of sore throat. Remedy for gonorrhea, snakebite, wounds, insect bites.
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Formulas or Dosages

Decoction: boil 1 heaping tsp. root in 1 cup water. Take 2 oz. 3-4 times a day. If for snakebite, substitute milk for the water in the formula.

Tincture: a dose is 1/2 to 1 tsp.
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Bibliography

Back to Eden, by Jethro Kloss; Back to Eden Publishing Co., Loma Linda, CA 92354, Original copyright 1939, revised edition 1994

Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants, by Steven Foster and James A. Duke., Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000

The Herb Book, by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. copyright 1974.

Indian Herbalogy of North America, by Alma R. Hutchens, Shambala Publications, Inc., Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973

Indian Uses of Native Plants, by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990

How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine & Crafts, by Frances Densmore, Dover Publications, Inc., 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974

Webster's New World Dictionary, Third College Edition, Victoria Neufeldt, Editor in Chief, New World Dictionaries: A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023, 1984

Indian Uses of Native Plants, by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990

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