ALL PREORDER SPECIES ARE STILL GROWING IN OUR GREENHOUSE - Please note all orders containing preorder species will be held until all plants in your order are ready to pickup or ship. If you would like available plants sooner please make two separate orders.
Light
|
Shade
|
Moisture
|
Medium-Wet to Medium-Dry
|
Bloom
|
Early Summer
|
Color
|
N/A
|
Height
|
6-12"
|
Wild Ginger is a lovely groundcover for plantings with rich, mesic soil and full to partial shade. It grows only six inches tall and forms dense colonies by spreading its fragrant rhizomes underground. Each plant produces two velvety, heart-shaped leaves that remain attractive all season long until the first frost, making Wild Ginger a great companion to plant alongside woodland spring ephemerals.
In the spring, Wild Ginger produces a small, inconspicuous reddish-purple flower at ground height between its two leaves. These fascinating flowers may be pollinated by ants as well as emerging flies that might otherwise be searching the ground for rotting animal flesh. Wild ginger is a larval host plant for pipevine swallowtail butterfly, and it is resistant to herbivory from deer and other mammals.
Although they are not closely related, the root of wild ginger does have a strong spicy flavor that is similar to culinary ginger. It has been used for cooking and medicine by Native Americans as well as Euro-American settlers, though it may contain chemical compounds that are poisonous or toxic and can cause skin irritation.