URI Staff

URI Staff

A Botanist’s View of Local Flora – Elephant’s Head

photo of Elephant's Head flower in a field.

I grew up playing with the pink flowers of the Elephant’s Head. They are so fun and the flowers quite elephant-like. In fact, I recall seeing only one other species of Pedicularis, the Parrot’s Beak. The group of species are called louseworts because mythology believed that the cattle that ate the plants got lice.