This White Snakeroot is a very common wild perennial in Pennsylvania and much of the East and Midwest. Its native range is from Saskatchewan through Quebec down deep into the deep South of the US, usually found growing along woodland edges. Like the other Bonesets & Thoroughworts, it is a great plant for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators when it blooms in late summer and early autumn. It can be a powerful weed in gardens and landscapes, as I have experienced, sowing itself everywhere, and it is not easy to pull out of the ground. I do like this wild native plant and think it is pretty, but I just don't want it anywhere, as it did grow unwanted in some places in a few gardens I took care of. It is sold by some native plant nurseries.

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White Snakeroot grows wild in my garden in NYC. At first I thought it was a weed but later found out that it was a native plant. I always make sure to leave some plants when I'm weeding my garden in spring and summer. I find the small white flowers to be quite attractive. It also blooms late in the summer/early fall when hardly anything else in the garden is blooming. The pollinators flock to it! The seeds are wind dispersed, but I haven't found it to be horribly invasive. The seedlings are easy enough to pull up and so far, none of my neighbors' yards have sprouted seedlings. This despite my typically having 10-20 plants flowering each year. I tend to have the same patch of them come up each year with a few stragglers about 3-4 feet away. My main patch is in partial to full shade and the plants grow about two feet tall.

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This grows wild all along the dark edge of our back woods and really stands out in the late summer and fall. The fluffy white tails are scattered by the wind and the plant reseeds quite prolifically.

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