Species Name:  Asarum canadense

Common Name: Wild ginger

Zone: 3 to 8

Distribution: New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario south to North Caroliina and Alabama.

Seed collection: Wild ginger seed is produced in a small fleshy fruit.  Each fruit contains  two to three dozen seeds. The fruit lies close to the ground and is usually hidden by the leaves and leaf litter.  Lift up the leaves at the end of the plant and the fruits will be more visible. Crush a few fruits to check on seed ripeness.  Collect the fruits when the seeds change from green to brown. Seed matures in late May in western New York. If the fruits are left too long they begin to decay and fall apart making collecting difficult.

Seed handling: Place collected fruit in a plastic bag to encourage the fruit to finish ripening and facilitate cleaning. When the fruits have softened from decay, add a little water and mash into a paste. Then add more water and begin to float off the pulp leaving the brown seed at the bottom of the container. Place the seed in slightly moistened peat moss or potting mix to stratify.

Germination requirements: Fresh seed sown imediatley or placed in stratification should germinate the first spring. Some seed will not germinate until the second year. The esaiest method to grow ginger is to plant the seed in the soil where you want the plants to grow or they can be sown in individual pots or in flats for transplanting at a later time.

Ecology: Wild ginger grows best in rich moist fertile forest soils but it is also found on average soils. Ginger spreads slowly by vegetative means creating a slowly expanding mass of leaves and stems. The seed is also dipersed by ants that carry the seed back to their nests where the seed is discarded. New populations are established by this means. Ginger is seldom if ever eaten by deer so it functions as a good plant to encourage where deer populations are high. Ginger is often found in forest dominated by Sugar maple and Basswood in association with trillium, hepatica, false solomon seal, wild leeks, zig zag goldenrod. It requires from half shade to full shade.

Harvest fruits when the seed has turned light brown
or when the fruits begin to disintegrate.

Wild ginger seedlings shortly after germination.
Young plants look like small versions of mature plants.

this page updated February 20, 2010