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Asarum marmoratum
Also called Marbled Wild Ginger
Asarum marmoratum is a species of flowering plant known by the common names marbled wild ginger and marble-leaf wild ginger. Despite its common name, the plant is not closely related to ginger, instead belonging to the birthwort family, Aristolochiaceae. It is a low-growing perennial plant with variegated evergreen leaves and inconspicuous flowers borne close to the ground. It is thought to reproduce primarily through self-pollination, but its flowers are also thought to mimic fungi to attract flies that facilitate pollination. The seeds contain fleshy tissues that attract ants to aid with dispersal.
The species has a relatively narrow distribution in the Siskiyou and Cascade mountain ranges in southwestern Oregon and northwestern California, where it grows in dry or mesic forests and on rocky slopes.
Asarum marmoratum is sometimes grown in cultivation and grows well in containers. The plants are deer resistant but particularly susceptible to herbivory by snails and slugs.
Asarum marmoratum is endemic to southwestern Oregon and northern California, where it grows in the Siskiyou Mountains and adjacent slopes of the Cascade Range. The elevational range is 200–1,800 m (660–5,900 ft). Typical habitat includes dry or mesic forests, exposed, rocky slopes, and roadcuts, where it is associated with Douglas fir, Abies concolor, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, and Quercus sadleriana. It is not known to be sympatric with the morphologically similar A. hartwegii but sometimes grows with A. caudatum. Its distribution consists of widely scattered populations, most of which are small but vary considerably in the number of individuals.
Wild Ginger · Asarum asperum · Canadian wildginger · British Columbia wildginger · Asarum crispulatum · European wild ginger · Hartweg's wildginger · Lemmon's wildginger · Wild ginger · Birthwort Family · Asarum monodoriflorum · Wild Ginger
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Asarum marmoratum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
