American feverfew, or wild quinine, is a common component of high-quality upland prairie. It is a native wildflower that was used to treat fevers or malaria. It's in the composite family.
American feverfew is a perennial herb with a single stem, usually unbranched below the flower cluster. It sometimes grows in colonies.
The basal and lower stem leaves are aromatic, to 8 inches long and 4 inches wide, tapering into long petioles (leaf stems), elliptical to broadly ovate, roughened with short, stiff hairs, with a coarsely toothed or scalloped margin. The leaves and stems have tiny spherical yellow glands.
The flowerheads are in flat-topped or slightly rounded, fuzzy white clusters about ¼ inch wide. The ray florets are few, tiny, and inconspicuous.
Blooms May–September.
Fruits are achenes (structurally similar to sunflower "seeds") about ⅛–¼ inch long, flattened, dark.
Similar species: Two varieties of this species are sometimes considered separate species:
- Variety hispidum (sometimes called P. hispidum) is usually colonial, with several stems arising from a branching rhizome; the stems moderately to densely hairy with short, stiff, spreading hairs, and the leaves with rather dense, spreading hairs along the undersurface midvein.
- Variety integrifolium is usually not colonial, with the rootstock somewhat thickened and tuberous, occasionally with a short rhizome; the stems are hairless, or if hairy, then with short, soft, loosely ascending hairs; hairs on midveins on undersides of leaves are more or less appressed.
Another species of Parthenium, called Santa Maria feverfew (P. hysterophorus) is an introduced, nonnative plant that is uncommon, occurring sporadically in our state. The flowerheads are quite similar, but the leaves are 1 or 2 times deeply pinnately lobed (not unlobed), and the plants are annual, with a taproot (not perennial, with rhizomes).
Height: to 3 feet.
Scattered nearly statewide, but uncommon or absent from the northwestern quarter.
Habitat and Conservation
American feverfew occurs in glades, upland prairies, rocky open woods, forest openings, ledges and tops of bluffs, savannas, pastures, and roadsides.
Although it can be found in other vegetation types, this native plant is a characteristic species of high-quality upland prairie plant communities.
Status
Native Missouri wildflower. Prairie wildflower.
Human Connections
The names feverfew and wild quinine indicate that the plant was used medicinally. Some Native American tribes made a poultice of the leaves to use for treating burns. Apparently the plant was also used as a diuretic.
Today people plant it as part of a prairie restoration or native wildflower garden. It's one of literally hundreds of plant species you can enjoy during a visit to a single high-quality prairie.
Ecosystem Connections
Insects visit the flowers for pollen and nectar.
This plant is rarely eaten by mammals because of its coarse texture and bitter-tasting chemicals in the leaves.
