Liatris punctata / Dotted blazing star

Synonyms: = Lacinaria punctata

Common names: Dotted blazing star, plains gayfeather, dotted gayfeather, densespike blazing star, button snakeroot

Blackfeet: mais-to-nata – “crow root” (McClintock 1909:274)

Comanche: ataβitsənoi (Carlson and Jones 1939:522)

Lakota: tatečaŋnuğa – “lumpy carcass” (Munson 1981:235)

Tewa: pinnwiki – “mountain slope” (Robbins et al. 1916:57)

Notes – the Blackfeet named it so because it was eaten by crows and ravens in the fall (McClintock 1909:274).

Location in Texas: all TX; common in Travis Co.

Form: herb; perennial.

Flowers: Aug-Nov (pink, purple).

Food

Roots – eaten by the Tewa (Robbins et al. 1916:57). The roots were chewed for their rich, fatty taste, and the juice was swallowed by the Comanche (Carlson and Jones 1939:522,531). The roots were eaten raw by the Blackfeet (McClintock 1909:274).

Medicine

Roots – chewed and their juice swallowed as a remedy for swollen testes by the Comanche (Carlson and Jones 1939:522,534).

Roots were boiled and applied to swellings by the Blackfeet (McClintock 1909:274).

An infusion was drunk by the Blackfeet to relieve stomachache (McClintock 1909:274).

The roots were pulverized and eaten to treat appetite loss by the Lakota (Munson 1981:236).

Whole plant – dried, powdered, and a decoction drunk to treat heart pain by the Lakota (Munson 1981:235-236).

Liatris punctata Hook. in GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-04-19.
Liatris punctata Hook. observed in United States of America by Dominic (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Liatris punctata Hook. observed in United States of America by Dominic (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Liatris punctata Hook. observed in Canada by Chris Friesen (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Liatris punctata Hook. observed in United States of America by John Kees (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
Liatris punctata Hook. observed in United States of America by John Kees (licensed under http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

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