Eryngium yuccifolium

Eryngium yuccifolium was much admired in our old succulent bed by humans and bees alike. This species from the eastern US has greyish green, yucca-like foliage and slender three foot stems holding egg-shaped clusters of white flowers. The flowers have a light honey-like fragrance. This peculiar genus from the carrot family is found around the world but with its centre of diversity in South America. There are also a number of European species. Rattlesnake master, as it is known, is native to eastern North America where it is a near native of Ontario occurring just across the water in Michigan, Ohio, and Minnesota. Surely it could have worked harder to become a dual citizen! Still, this species is very much a part of the Great Lakes ecoregion and would make sense, ecologically speaking, in native plant gardens in eastern Canada. Deer and rabbit resistant.

Once used medicinally to treat rattlesnake bites! This wildflower of prairie and woodland's edge has silvery, holly-edged, Yucca-like basal leaves and 3' stem topped with an abundance of white ball-flowers. This intriguing U.S. native tolerates drought, clay and shallow soils. It is a member of the parsley family, but parsley-looking it is not! S/M-D/GDr

A tall grass prairie native, rattlesnake master once was used to make rattles by Native Americans. Bone-white flower clusters resemble small thistles and contrast with grasses and purple tones such as Penstemon 'Dark Towers'. Easy to grow in regular to dry sandy soils, its taproot indicates it should not be disturbed.

Smelling like a carrot, looking a bit like a Yucca and once used by pioneers and Native Americans as an antidote to rattlesnake venom, this American tall grass prairie dweller brandishes bold bluish green lax rosettes. Characterized by parallel veins, bristly edges and a glaucous finish, the 3 ft. long sword-shaped leaves launch an architectural wonder of tightset thistle-style greenish white spheres and pointed ivory bracts housed within branched clusters on smooth stiff stems. A low maintenance perennial that provides fantastic winter interest, Rattlesnake Master obliges dry rocky soil and can be planted amid softer textured grasses such as Eragrostis chloromelas or Pennisetum spathiolatum.

Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) is a unique wildflower with leaves like a yucca, and unique 'golf ball' flowers like no other plant. Makes an excellent focal point in the garden when planted individually or in groups. Native Americans brewed a tea from the root as an antidote to rattlesnake venom. Other common names include Button Snakeroot, Yucca-leaf Eryngo, Corn Snakeroot, Rattlesnake Flag, and Rattlesnake Weed. Hardy to Zones 4 - 9.

Very different look than most of this genus, leaves are indeed very yucca-like, long, narrow, and strap-like, edged with small, non-lethal, teeth. Leaves rise 2-3 feet, and then in late summer, the flowers come up a couple feet above that, big clusters of greenish-white spheres that all but lack the usual Ernygium bracts.Will grow just about anywhere, but inclined to be floppy unless grown lean and in full sun. Zone 3

The rounded white to greenish-white, rounded, flower clusters sit atop thick sturdy stems that emerge from the rosette of soft yucca-like foliage. This is a tough native perennial whose long-lasting summer flowers will attract a myriad of butterflies and other pollinators to your garden. A Missouri Botanic Gardens 'Plant of Merit'.

An excellent low maintenance plant, this Eryngium indeed resembles a yucca plant's foliage. In mid summer it sends up 3-4' flower spikes topped with pale green thistles, adding texture and contrast to naturalistic plantings.