button snakeroot

noun

1. any composite plant of the genus Liatris, having narrow, alternate leaves and spikelike heads of rose-purple flowers.
2. an eryngo, Eryngium yuccifolium, of the southeastern U.S., having bristly leaves and whitish flowers.

Word History and Origins

Origin of button snakeroot¹

An Americanism dating back to 1765–75

Example Sentences

On one woodland road at Orange, New Jersey, the shades of asters, from the deepest violet-blue and purple to the palest lilac, are bewilderingly beautiful, while the splendid varieties of liatris, or button snakeroot, the rose-purple and white ox-eyed daisies and white asters, golden-rod, and the great open-eyed corn-flowers, or rudbeckias, are certainly beyond description.

From Project Gutenberg