Furthermore, it also gets identified or confused with another kind of plant with legendary features, the springwort (German Springwurzel).
This plant, according to legend, is often found growing in forests, this being the reason people get lost in the woods.
In Tyrol, stepping on an Irrwurz immediately transfers you to a knacker's yard or into a swamp.
[2] In Switzerland, where this plant is known as Vexierchrut ("vexing herb") and identified with fern, one goes astray when carrying some of it in one's pocket.
[9] In Carinthia, getting lost after stepping on a Irrwurzen is attributed to a spirit or goblin standing in front of the right path and 'veneering' (i.e. hiding) it.
[1] The German ancestors of the Pennsylvania Dutch brought the mythological idea of Irrkraut to the New World, calling it Verirrgraut[13] ("going astray herb")[14] in their dialect and identifying it with the rattlesnake plantain.
If stepping on it at day, the victim has to be shocked back to reason or else it won't stop wandering around aimlessly.
Pennsylvania Dutch remedies against going astray are walking barefoot or switching shoes.