Asarum Canadense Canadian Wild Ginger

Canadian wild ginger, also called asarum canadense, is a low-growing perennial with heart-shaped leaves. Asarum canadense forms large colonies of plants that are only about 4 to 8 inches high. Each plant bears large, glossy, heart-shaped leaves.

When Canadian wild ginger blooms, inconspicuous dark red-brown or green-brown flowers form at ground level between 2 leaf stalks. In my plantings of Canadian wild ginger, the flowers are difficult to find, hidden underneath the leaves. Because the cup-shaped flowers are so inconspicuous, Asarum canadense is grown for its attractive foliage, not its blooms.

According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the fleshy root stock of Asarum canadense, which has a strong, gingery flavor, can create a crowded network on the woodland floor. This results in a dense groundcover of Canadian wild ginger. In the plantings in shady areas in my yard, it has taken several years for the plants to form this dense cover, but the Asarum canadense is doing well under trees and in shady spots at the base of shrubs.

Canadian wild ginger is an interesting, and less invasive, substitute for ground covers such as pachysandra and ivy. Because it grows more slowly, it will take some time for the ground cover to spread if not planted densely. Asarum canadense may also be useful as a substitute for small hostas, though it is somewhat shorter than many varieties of this common garden plant.

Other common names for the plant are Canadian snakeroot and broad-leaved asarabaccais. Asarum canadense grows naturally in eastern North America, from the Great Plains to the Atlantic Coast, and from southeastern Canada into parts of the southeastern United States.

Native Americans used Canadian wild ginger as a seasoning and a medicinal herb.

Canadian wild ginger will grow in USDA zones 2 to 8. It does well in fertile, moist soil similar to that of its woodland habitat. In my yard, I use fall leaves as a mulch around the Canadian wild ginger.

Canadian wild ginger is not a plant I have seen at my local garden center or Home Depot, but it is available from numerous online nurseries. It can be expensive, and it may be better-if you can afford to wait for the plants to grow-to buy a limited number of plants from the mail-order nursery, and then propagate them at home once they grow larger.

Asarum canadense is easy to propagate by division, and can be periodically dug up and split into smaller individual plants with a shovel or knife. Usually, I divide it in the spring.