Ground-Elder
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: MagnoliophytaClass: Magnoliopsida
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Genus: Aegopodium
Species: A. podagraria
The plant was introduced into Britain (England) by the Romans and then into the rest ofNorthern Europe by monks. It is considered the worst of weeds, the most difficult to eradicate, the fastest grownin, spreading over large areas of ground by underground rhizomes.
It is extremely invasive, and crowds out native species. The smallest
piece of rhizome left in the ground will quickly form a sturdy new
plant, followed by many more.There is a variegated form is grown as an
ornamental plant, though with the advice to keep it isolated. Just like
all other plants, does have it’s place in the eco-sycsem, it’s used as a food plant by the larvae of some species of Lepidoptera including dot moth, grey dagger and grey pug.It belongs to the carrot family (Apiaceae) that grows in shady places.
the young tender leaves can be used as a spring leaf vegetable much like spinach.
It is also known as herb gerard, bishop's weed and snow-in-the-mountain
This is a useful web site about wild flowers and herbs of the Western Isles,
http://www.thewesternisles.co.uk/wildflowers/ground-elder.htm
It has this to say about ground elder;
‘’Ground
elder has leaves like those of the elder tree and makes an attractive
and effective ground-cover, particularly in shady parts of the garden.
It is the way these elder-like leaves cover a large patch of ground, and
then send up the flowering stems that helps us identify the ground
elder from the other umbelliferae, which tend to just send up flowering
stems. (Alexanders looks a bit like this before it's stems have gone up,
but Alexanders has dark leaves and ground elder's are bright green) In a
single growing season ground elder can spread across a few square
metres, sending up slender 2 foot tall stems carrying it's white
umbelliferae flowers. It flowers May - July. Gound elder has also been
known as dog elder, goat's foot, devil's guts, housemaid's knee, white
ash, gout-weed, bishop's weed, and seven-toed Jack. It is not a popular
plant, as it prefers cultivated land and once in, not only does ground
elder quickly spread, but it is almost impossible to remove. There are
records of ground elder roots growing 30 feet deep in the soil! Many of
it's names refer to it's status as a garden menace. Ground Elder is
described a colonist in the Western Isles, it is not a native plant. It
does have uses to us, ground elder is a useful vegetable, it can be
cooked and eaten as a spinach substitute (tangy but a bit stringy), and
more importantly it is a treatment for gout and other associated
disorders’’
If you want to be rid of your Ground Elder it’s not an easy task, this is a link to organic weed management
and this is what they say;
‘’Management:
Although ground elder is not normally an arable weed it can encroach
onto arable land where it should be hoed off frequently to exhaust the
creeping rootstock. A bare fallow with repeated cultivations will be
needed to deal with ground elder on a field scale. Liming may reduce the
weed, draining may help on wet land, as may cleaning crops like
potato.In gardens the soil should be dug over and the rhizomes removed
but a single cultivation will not suffice. Ground elder should be hoed
off or dug out at every opportunity. Any rhizomes turned up during
cultivation should be collected and burnt. Where it invades a planted
area it may be necessary to dig out the desirable plants and clean off
their roots to remove rhizome fragments. The soil-free plants should be
potted up and observed to ensure no ground elder has been missed. The
cleared bed can then be cultivated repeatedly to deal with the ground
elder before replanting.’’
9 Comments
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hedgewitch9 wrote on Jun 29, '08
Hi
Well, I have I have used my weed wand on some, covered some in bark, and left some as it is! :))) |
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hedgewitch9 wrote on Jun 18, '08
I have left two parts of the garden to the ground elder.
When I can afford the bark and plastic, I shall indeed follow your sound advice! :))) And I shall save you some of the 'spinach' LOL :))) |
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forgetmenot525 wrote on Jun 18, '08
Well
why don't you just eat your way through it lol...........free greens
for all the family through out the year!! And maybe enough left over to
treat my arthritis, now that would be good.
In seriousness what you could do, maybe one bed at a time, is remove the smaller more managable plants, dig out as much as you can and then cover the ground with plastic sheeting just cutting small holes to fit around your bigger plants. In fact if you do this you could consider keeping the plastic in place for a couple of years untill the ground elder has really died off, and just cover the plastic with bark or similar. Or.............as I have already said, just give in and allow some bits of the garden to return to its natural state. After all, as people keep saying, it is very pretty |
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hedgewitch9 wrote on Jun 18, '08
Thank you Loretta!!!
It is pretty, but smothers everything in its path! The beds I have are huge and this could mean getting it under control could take years...I don't think you can get rid of it unless you do dig up all your plants as it suggests... trouble is, some of the plants in my beds are either 10 feet tall and huge, or a mass of cover themselves... hmmm.. I shall be battling it for as long as I live here I suspect LOL! Big Hug Loretta for your fab research!!! |
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starfishred wrote on Jun 18, '08
is this sometimes called Queen Anns Lace?
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