Favorite Flora: Wild Ginger

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense): Edible… or not?

Asarum canandense resizeBy Debra Knapke






Pipevine Swallowtail Jim McCormac




One response to “Favorite Flora: Wild Ginger

  1. July Hays

    Just a comment about the poisonous side of the wild ginger–I grew up with the western version of Asarum canadensis, A. caudatum (seems identical to me), and tasted the root more than once. It smells nicely of ginger-lemon but tastes strongly earthy As a child I was never tempted to chew or swallow it but would sometimes carry a bit of root around in my pocket for the smell. It is not “hot” like real ginger. I suspect that herbalists are simply attributing zingibar’s qualities to this unrelated plant. Pojar & MacKinnon, in Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (the bible of NW native plants), state that coastal native tribes used the crushed leaves as a poultice (for headache, joint pains etc.) but internal use was as an emetic that would also settle the stomach. That would reinforce the idea of its mildly poisonous nature. They also used it for TB but since this disease was brought by the Europeans, you can’t count it as a true traditional medicine.

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