A plant root used by beavers as food; a plant that beavers eat or dig for; possibly a folk medicine remedy.
Compound of beaver and root (from Old English wyrt meaning 'plant' or 'root'). Names a plant or root that is significant to beavers as a food source.
Folk plant names that include animal names usually tell us something about what that animal eats—like 'colt's foot' or 'duck potato'—so beaverroot tells us that beavers were observed digging for and eating specific roots, and indigenous peoples might have learned about plant foods by watching what animals ate.
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