Wild Ginger

Asarum canadense

Wild ginger has lovely, heart-shaped leaves.

Like skunk cabbage and red trillium, wild ginger mimics carrion to attract its pollinators. Its deep red flower sits on the ground, shaded by its two leaves. Unlike skunk cabbage and red trillium, I’ve never noticed their flower to have a scent (and I’ve sniffed them many times).

You’ll notice the leaves of Wild Ginger before you notice the flower. I often see it in rich, rocky areas, growing on a slope. Sometimes there will be a huge patch of them, their slightly fuzzy paired leaves lighter and mintier in color than the greens around them.

Wild Ginger is not conventional ginger, so don’t eat it. Get up close with it instead: lay on the ground, look into its strange eye, enjoy the perspective of a beetle searching for food.

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All illustrations and photos are my own.

Note: This is the twelfth in a series of posts on spring ephemeral wildflowers.

Previous posts:

• Skunk Cabbage

• Hepatica

• Bloodroot

• Blue Cohosh

• Dutchman’s Breeches

• Yellow Trout Lily

• Carolina Spring Beauty

• Red Trillium

• White Trillium

• Early Meadow Rue

• Large-flower Bellwort

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