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BONESET

NOMENCLATURE

Other Names: Common thoroughwort, Indian sage

 Scientific Name: Eupatorium perfoliatum L.

 Plant Family: Compositae

GENERAL INFORMATION

Botanical Description: herbaceous

 Stems: erect, stiff with coarse hairs, 1 - 5 feet high

 Leaves: opposite, long and lance-shaped, clasping the stem (no petiole), hairy underneath and wrinkly

 Roots: fibrous roots, with stout rhizomes

 Flowers: usually white, in small flat-topped or slightly round-topped clusters on long stems, bloom July - September

 Seeds: oblong, narrow, 5-angled, may have tiny bristles

 Seedling: Seed leaves are much less than 0.25 inches and smooth. Subsequent leaves are opposite with thick hairs above, on the edges, and on prominent veins underneath. Leaf edges are scallop-toothed. Leaf pairs are close together. Early leaves are much less than 1 inch long. Stem is very hairy and round in cross section.

 

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

May not be a serious cranberry weed pest.

 

LIFE CYCLE

Reproduction: perennial

Propagation: Spreads by sprouting at rhizomes.

 Dispersal:

DISTRIBUTION

State: Common in wetlands throughout Wisconsin.

 National: Found in many states east of the Rocky Mountains, ranging northward to Canada and southward to the Gulf of Mexico.

 Origin: May be native to the American tropics.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Common on drainage ditchbanks and cranberry bed edges. Also common in wild marsh and wetlands adjacent to cranberry beds. Often found with joe-pye weed, which closely resembles it.

 

SCOUTING PROCEDURE/ET

While scouting a cranberry bed for disease and insect pests, identify weed populations as they arise. Note the specie(s) of weed present as well as the population level relative to field area. Example: 30% yarrow, 20% boneset and joe-pye weed mix.

 

REFERENCES

Dana, M. 1987. Cranberry Weeds in Wisconsin. Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 3.

 Gleason, H. A. 1952. Illustrated Flora of the United States and Adjacent Canada. Vol 3. Lancaster Press, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. p. 491.

Kummer, A. P. 1951. Weed Seedlings. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, U.S.A. p. 306.

 Kummer, L. D., T. G. Dittl, and T. D. Planer. 1993. Wisconsin Cranberry Weeds. Wisconsin Cranberry Board, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. p. 12.

 McGregor, R. L. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. p. 933-934.

 

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