Great Groundcover: Native Canadian Wild Ginger

Glossy-leaved European Ginger

Welcome to the latest edition of “Plant This, Not That!” European Ginger (Asarum europaeum) is a glossy-leaved ground cover that adds greenery to shady spots. While European Ginger is a rather innocuous ground cover, you can get the same effect with a native plant: Canadian Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense).

Native to the Eastern and Central U.S. and Canada, Canadian Wild Ginger enjoys the same growing conditions as its European counterpart: it thrives in moist, rich soils in deep to partial shade. Deer rarely damages it, and it stays under a foot tall. While its leaves aren’t glossy, Wild Ginger has a fetching heart-shaped leaf and a fuzzy matte look.

Canadian Wild Ginger - note the velvety leaves!

Ecosystem Benefits

An advantage to planting native Wild Canadian Ginger instead of European Ginger is its ecosystem benefits. Canadian Ginger is the larval host plant for Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies, birds eat its seeds, and beetles and flies pollinate its flowers. Wait, these plants have flowers? Indeed they do! Inconspicuous purple-brown bell-shaped flowers bloom on the underside of the leaves in the spring. You’re forgiven for not getting close enough to notice; I haven’t seen them either.

Human Uses of Canadian Wild Ginger

You might wonder if European or Canadian Wild Ginger is the ginger we use for cooking. While some foragers experiment with the native plant, the culinary ginger found in the grocery store is a very different plant, Zingiber officinale. These ginger plants grow 3 feet tall and have narrow leaves.

However, Native Americans used Canadian Wild Ginger for medicinal purposes like treating coughs, colds, and fevers. Cherokee, Chippewa, Menominee, Meskwaki, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi peoples used it as a digestive aid, reminiscent of how we use ginger tea and soda today.