disc mayweed
Tanacetum suaveolens (Pursh) Hook.
Traditional Food Use
INTRODUCED: The leaves are edible raw or cooked.
Medicinal Documentation
Plant tops used as an ingredient in many medicines
Plant tops used by women as an ingredient in many medicines for their complaints
Women drank a tea to build up their blood at childbirth and aid in delivering the placenta
Young girls drank it if they were experiencing menstrual cramps during their first menses
Used as a medicine
Ceremonial & Cultural Notes
Artifacts/Material use: Dried, pulverized flowers, leaves, sweet grass, horse mint and sweet pine used as a perfume
Plant used in the Sun Dance ceremony. Wesley White Man indicated that in the Sun Dance, a mixture containing the tops of pineapple weed would be chewed up and blown on the participants for its cooling effect.456 Additional commentary: The flowering tops were often used as an ingredient in medicinal mixtures. Moerman refers to pineapple weed as Matricaria discoidea.457
Botanical Reference
Parts Documented: leaf, plant, plant_tops, Not specified in the literature, flowers, leaves
Distribution: Disturbed ground, often on roadsides; plains to montane; Northwest Territory, Canada to New Mexico