Sneezeweed

Sneezeweed, or Heliums, is also called swamp sunflowers. Even though it is the green leaves that were often used to make snuff, sneezeweed certainly makes you think it is a plant any mischief-maker, young or old, would like to find. Does it really make you sneeze? One sniff and you will know.

I do not know if sneezeweed makes a cow sneeze. But if she eats it, her milk will sour. Horses and sheep can also eat too many of the poisonous powder heads with a fatal outcome.

The Menominee Indians of Wisconsin applied a compound of dried flowers to cuts on the temple to relieve a headache or sniff the snuff to cause sneezing to clear a stuffy head or to relieve a headache.

The Meswaki Indians of Iowa used an infusion made from the florets to help a gastrointestinal problem and the snuff for colds.

The Comanche used an infusion of the florets as a wash for a fever.

The poisonous sneezeweed is nothing to sneeze at! The plant’s poison that comes from a chemical compound called sesquiterpene is more potent when is flowering. It is this chemical that gives the plant its bitter taste. Ingesting it can cause some nasty results such as weakness, bloating, staggering, salivation and irregular pulse, spasms convulsions and death to name a few. Some people have been poisoned simple because some sneezeweed mixed with the harvested wheat.

Other well-known plants that also contain sesquiterpene are chrysanthemums, ragweed, sagebrush, and the sunflower.