Common Butterbur

This is a weird looking plant that blooms very early in the spring. It is starting to bloom now, the first tiny flowers have just opened.

The name of it in Finnish is Etelänruttojuuri which means something like Southern plague root. Not a very nice name! But you can't really call the plant very pretty either... I was wondering why the name had the word plague in it and learned that the plant was used as a medicine for plague in medieval times.