#asarum

(April 2025)

Hexastylis speciosa / Alabama Ginger at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[ID: Five photos of a little brown jugs plant, which has small pink and brown flowers under thea es that look like vases or jugs with rounded bases. The leaves are dark green and shaped like arrowheads or hearts, with lighter green spots. End ID.]

Asarum sp. June 2023.

62440.01 Asarum europaeum by horticultural art https://flic.kr/p/2nErM8S

Part 1 of 2: The Friendship Hill National Historic Site in Pennsylvania is about fifteen minutes up the road from where Blake and I live. Although it’s a unit of the National Park Service, it tends to be overshadowed by the nearby Ft Necessity National Battlefield. Aside from the historical significance of the Albert Gallatin homestead (covered in prior posts), the park has miles of hiking trails winding over and around the heavily wooded bluffs along the Monongahela River. One of the trails runs parallel to the river through rich floodplain forest with an incredibly dense spring wildflower display. Blake and I spent the better part of the afternoon yesterday exploring the many wild wonders along the trail system. Wildflowers (from top to bottom): Canada violet (Viola canadensis); Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum); false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum), an edible member of the asparagus family; wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), maybe the loveliest wildflower in these damp, rich woods; wild ginger (Asarum canadense) with its otherworldly, ground-hugging flower, which is pollinated by ants; and mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum).

I think this is the more common wild ginger in other areas, but here I'd say it's the rarest. We've got a lot of Hexastylis arifolia, less but still common enough H. minor, and this one only rarely. There was a lot of it in this one spot, by the bluff with the weird soil conditions & locally unusual plants.

Maianthemum bifolium, hepatica nobilis, asarum europaeum. May 2019