Popular beverage tea was made from leaves in the past. Root tea used for colds, fevers, snakebites, bronchitis, dysentary, and as a tonic. Root alkaloid is mildly hypotensive; root contains up to 8% tannin. Large red roots yield a red/brown dye. Shrubby habit with showy white flowers in clusters from June - Sept. Good butterfly plant - it's a host plant for Azure and Duskywing butterflies. Seeds are eaten by wild turkeys and quail.