I’m in suburban NJ and we didn’t weed our flower beds/hedges this year. We now have a ton of what my phone tells is me is white snakeroot (pic). I see a lot of it around town too. Wikipedia tells me this is native to our area but toxic, at least to livestock and people who eat meat from livestock who ate the plant. Anyone know anything about this plant? Is it fine to leave or we should manage it?
We are not in an area with livestock, but definitely dogs, cats, squirrels, rabbits, foxes, raccoons, etc. Also tons of deer around. Thanks!
by catfriend18
7 Comments
I’d leave it for sure. Unless you are worried about kids or dogs deciding they want to eat a random plant because it is poisonous. But a wonderful native plant.
Deer and other mammals that evolved alongside it tend to avoid it. Definitely keep. It’s a great native and a fall bloomer which are extremely important to pollinators.
Another vote for keeping it!
Mine was taking over an area where I wanted to grow other stuff. The stems were very spread out and it was ugly (though the flowers did look nice). I yanked it out. If it’s ugly, or crowding out other plants you want, or if you have kids or pets who you think might try to take a bite of it, then get rid of it. Otherwise, it isn’t hurting anything, might as well let it be.
I get a lot of it, and tend to thin it out. Not remove it completely, but also not let it takeover as it seems to.
I yank it because I have a kid who is too young for common sense. It also looks too close to hemlock for me, and I pull anything that resembles hemlock.
I just got my first spring of snakeroot after removing invasives, and my vote goes for keep it! It’s also pretty cool with bring replanted where you want it.