Culver’s Root - Veronicastrum virginicum

Veronicastrum virginicum, also known as Culver’s Root, is a perennial wildflower native to Michigan and the UP. It likes meadows, gardens, fens, riverbanks, and lightly forested fields. 

Culver's root can reach 5 feet tall and flowers in midsummer with a candelabra of white blossoms. Bees and butterflies are thrilled with this plant. According to Illinoiswildflowers.info, the plant attracts honeybees, bumblebees, mason bees, green metallic bees, masked bees, sphecid wasps, moths, syrphid flies, and butterflies. Great for flower gardens. Its whorls of attractive leaves topped by strongly vertical flower spikes add a lot of texture and make a nice accent or border. 

It prefers full sun to partial shade, wet to medium-dry soil and will grow in muck, clay, loam or sandy loam. In sandy soil it is very well behaved, adding more stems from a central point for a dramatic cluster. It spreads with more enthusiasm in moist soils, but is not usually aggressive. Excessive shade, fertilizer, or sloping can cause flopping, but it is normally strongly upright.
 
According to Prairie Moon, the name Culver's Root is "derived from Dr. Coulvert of the late 17th to early 18th century, who found laxative properties in the plant." Silly name for a great plant.