The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Petasites hybridus
Also called Pestilence Wort, Butterbur, Bog Rhubarb, Purple Butterbur, Umbrella Plant, Butterbur [plant], Butterfly Dock
Common butterbur is a rhizomatous perennial that flowers in early spring, before its huge leaves appear, and grows best in moist, fertile soil near water. It is a wetland plant of Europe and northern Asia, grown mainly as a bold ornamental or for ground cover in damp spots.
Petasites hybridus, also known as the butterbur, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae that is native to Europe and northern Asia.
Although used over centuries in traditional medicine to treat various disorders, there are no approved medical uses, but it is sold as a dietary supplement. Concerns about the potential toxic effects of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in butterbur limit its use in human and animal studies.
Butterbur extracts have been found to contain hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids at the retail level. These extracts are not recommended during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
The adverse effects of butterbur reported in clinical trials include mainly gastrointestinal problems, such as nausea, flatulence, and belching. In 2015, the American Academy of Neurology withdrew its original endorsement of butterbur due to safety concerns.
It is native to western and central Europe, extending from the British Isles to the Caucasus, and from southern Italy to southern Scandinavia. It is present as an introduced species in North America. In the British Isles, female plants are rarely found outside central and northern England and the species may be naturalized as clonal populations outside this area, propagating via rhizome fragments. The preferred habitats are moist, fertile soils often by rivers, streams, and in wet meadows.
White Butterbur · Arctic sweet coltsfoot · Japanese sweet coltsfoot · Winter Heliotrope · Petasites spurius · Butterbur
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Petasites hybridus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
