Nabalus albus(L.) Hook.

white rattlesnakeroot

WFO wfo-0000027607 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Nabalus albus, photographed by Ethan Rose
fig. a Ethan Rose, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 201360130
Nabalus albus, photographed by Mike B
fig. b Mike B, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 196427417
Nabalus albus, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. c Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156249843
Nabalus albus, photographed by Paul Roots
fig. d Paul Roots, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153501483
Nabalus albus, photographed by Eric Schmidt
fig. e Eric Schmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173262018
Nabalus albus, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. f Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149490680
Nabalus albus, photographed by Mary Krieger
fig. g Mary Krieger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153581733
Nabalus albus, photographed by Eric Schmidt
fig. h Eric Schmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151135486

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 32 botanical countries

Regions where Nabalus albus is native: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin ArkansasConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKentuckyMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMissouriNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareRhode I.
Native distribution of Nabalus albus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arkansas ARK NORTHERN AMERICA
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 429 in flower of 645 examined

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Nabalus albus observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 429 of 645 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 10 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Chondrilla alba (L.) Lam.
  • Chondrilla rubicunda Poir.
  • Nabalus albus (L.) C.Shih
  • Nabalus albus var. albus
  • Nabalus suavis DC.
  • Prenanthes alba L.
  • Prenanthes alba subsp. alba
  • Prenanthes alba var. alba
  • Prenanthes rubicunda Willd.
  • Prenanthes suavis Salisb.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol PRAL2. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.