Wild Ginger, Canadian Wild Ginger, Asarum canadense L., Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Wild Ginger	Asarum canadense L.	Birthwort (Aristolochiaceae)	Woodland	Spring to Early Summer
Other names and notes	(Canadian Wild Ginger) A low growing plant, up to 8" high, usually in clumps, with two heart shaped leaves growing from the base on hairy stems. The plant is stemless and from the base also comes a solitary purple three-pointed flower growing close to the soil. The flower also is woolly and has a darker color inside than outside. A 6-celled seed capsule forms from this. Mature leaves can be large - up to 6" across. Leaf stalks and leaves are hairy. Colonies form via creeping rhizomes and by seed. It is the root that has the taste and smell of ginger. Propagation by seed is difficult. Much easier is dividing mature plants in the fall before dormancy. The rhizome can be cut into 6 or 8" sections and planted immediately. Fall is also the time to collect roots for drying. As the plants form a clump, another method is to simply divide off an outer section of the clump and move it. Wild Ginger is considered un-attractive to deer. Eloise Butler's thoughts on this plant are given below.

Notes: Eloise Butler's records show that she first planted Wild Ginger plants obtained on May 25, 1907 from the "govt' reservation" at Minnehaha (presumably the area near Fort Snelling and the Bureau of Mines.) It is included on Martha Crone's 1951 census of plants in the Garden and presumably has been in the Garden continuously. Native to Minnesota in most counties except those in the SW quadrant. In North America it is found from the Dakotas and Manitoba eastward to the coast, Florida and the maritime provinces excepted. There is documentation of Native American use of the plant for medicinal purposes. Densmore (Ref.#5) reports the Minnesota Chippewa used the root as an appetizer by adding it to food while cooking and the dried root was also chewed to treat indigestion. The roots contain a volatile oil, a resin, a bitter principle called 'asarin', alkaloids, sugar and a camphor like substance (Ref. #7).

Eloise Butler wrote: "Many will not observe the flower of the wild ginger, although they cannot fail to see the large round leaves. But when one has learned the habit of the plant, he will stoop to look between the leaves for the purplish-red flower-bell bent down to the ground and tricked out with three slender horns. The enigma is easily interpreted: If the curious should lift up the flower to gaze upon it, the horns would protect it from the “evil eye”! With closer approach one perceives another charm - the delightful aromatic odor. Some persons carry about with them a piece of the thick rootstalk as a specific for bodily ills." (Published in the Sunday Minneapolis Tribune, May 7, 1911 - Complete article)

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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