Aegopodium

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Aegopodium podagraria


Plant Characteristics
Habit   herbaceous

Lifespan: perennial
Cultivation
Scientific Names

Apiaceae >

Aegopodium >


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Aegopodium Native to Europe and western Asia. It is a genus of flowering plants of the carrot family Apiaceae, represented by about 7 species, all are perennial herbs. Flowers are compounded, umbels appearing in spring-summer. Fruit consists of 2-winged or ribbed nuts that separate on ripening.

The most well-known member is the Aegopodium podagraria, the ground elder also known as snow-on-the-mountain, Bishop's weed, goutweed, native to Europe and Asia. It is variegated green and white that sometimes reverts to solid green within a patch. Small, white, five-petal flowers are held about three feet high, above the leaves, in flat topped clusters. Underground are long white branching rhizomes that vaguely resemble quackgrass. Regarded as an ecological threat, goutweed is aggressive, invasive and forms dense patches reducing species diversity in the ground layer. On the other hand, because of this, it is often used as a low maintenance ground cover.


Read about Aegopodium in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Aegopodium (aix, goat, and podion, a little foot; probably from the shape of the lfts). Umbelliferae. Goutweed. Coarse, hardy herbaceous perennial, with creeping rootstocks, biternate lvs., sharply toothed, ovate lfts., white fls. in umbels: frs. ovate, glabrous, with equal filiform ribs, and no oil-tubes. CH


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Cultivation

Frost hardy but drought tender, preferring moist well-drained soil in an open sunny position.

Propagation

Propagate from seed or rhizome.

Pests and diseases

Species

Gallery

References


External links