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Asarum canadense
Also called Wild Ginger, American Wild Ginger, Canada Snakeroot, Canada Wild Ginger, Canadian Wild Ginger
Canadian wildginger is a low, rhizomatous perennial that forms dense ground-cover colonies in the shady understory of deciduous woodlands in eastern North America. It thrives in cool, moist, humus-rich shade and spreads steadily by its underground rhizomes.
Asarum canadense, commonly known as Canada wild ginger, Canadian snakeroot, Indian Ginger, Coltsfoot, and Broad-Leaved Asarabacca, is a herbaceous, perennial plant. It should not be confused for Asarum reflexum, a closely related species, or Asarum acuminatum, a variety of A. canadense.
It forms dense colonies in the understory of deciduous forests throughout its native range in eastern North America. It is protected as a threatened species in Maine due to habitat loss. The species has been used by Native Americans for cooking and medicine, although recent research has suggested that compounds within the plant could cause negative health problems.
British Columbia wildginger · European wild ginger · Seonun Wild Ginger · Chinese wild ginger · Wild ginger
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Asarum canadense by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
