Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Piperales > Aristolochiaceae > Asarum > Asarum canadense

Asarum canadense (Canadian wildginger; Canadian wild ginger)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Asarum canadense, commonly known as Canada wild ginger, Canadian snakeroot, and broad-leaved asarabacca, is a herbaceous, perennial plant which forms dense colonies in the understory of deciduous forest throughout its native range in eastern North America, from the Great Plains east to the Atlantic Coast, and from southeastern Canada south to around the fall line in the southeastern United States. It is protected as a state threatened species in Maine.
View Wikipedia Record: Asarum canadense

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Low
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  The leaves are poisonous; Handling the leaves is said to cause dermatitis in some people;
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Flies
Scent [2]  The root, especially when quite dry, has a pungent, aromatic smell like mild pepper and ginger mixed, but more strongly aromatic.
Structure [3]  Herb
Usage [2]  The slightly roasted root can be ground into a powder and then sprinkled onto clothing for perfume; A useful ground cover for a shady position so long as it is not dry;
Height [2]  3.937 inches (0.1 m)
Width [2]  20 inches (0.5 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Asarum canadense

Protected Areas

Predators

Battus philenor (pipevine swallowtail)[4]

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0