Identification
This native perennial shrub-like plant grows 1-3 feet tall; older plants have woody stems (C). Roots may be as deep as 16 feet. The alternate, compound leaves have up to 24 pairs of opposite, elliptical leaflets plus a single one at the tip (D). Short, white hairs cover the leaves and stems giving the plant a silvery or leaden color, the origin of the common name (D). Unique, single-petaled, purple flowers have 10 protruding reddish stamens with yellow anthers at their tip (B). They occur in densely packed, 2-4 inch clusters at the end of the stems (A,C). Each flower produces a single seed enclosed in a densely hairy pod (E).
Grows on dry to moist, well-drained prairies, flowering in June and July. At Neale Woods, Lead Plant is common in most of the prairie restorations. It has not been found at Fontenelle Forest.
Lead Plant is very palatable to livestock and decreases rapidly with grazing. Its presence in a prairie suggests it is in good condition.
Stout, interlaced roots yielded grudgingly to the settler’s plow with a snap, earning it the alternate common name Prairie or Devil’s Shoestring. Flowering time coincided with the bison rutting period prompting the Omaha and Ponca name of “buffalo bellow plant.”
Leaves were dried and used to make “prairie tea.”
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