European wild ginger

Appearance

The prostrate stems are 10–15 centimetres long, each bearing two reniform leaves with long petioles.The leaves are about 10 cm wide. The upper surface of the leaves is shiny, and they have a pepper-like taste and smell. There are also 2 to 3 stipules present that occur in two rows opposite each other on the stem. The flowers are solitary, terminal and nodding. The flower tube is composed of fused tepals that ends with 3 petal-like projections that are brownish towards their ends and dark purple toward the centre. There are 12 stamens present. The flowers emerge in the late winter and spring.

Naming

There are two recognised subspecies other than the type, including "A. europaeum" ssp. "caucasicum", which is confined to the southwestern Alps, and "A. europaeum" ssp. "italicum", which is found in central and northern Italy as well as in the Skopska Crna Gora mountains of Macedonia and Kosovo.

Distribution

"Asarum europaeum" has a wide distribution in Europe. It ranges from southern Finland and northern Russia south to southern France, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria. It is absent from the British Isles and Scandinavia with the exception of southern Finland, and also from northwestern Germany and the Netherlands. Within Europe, the plant is grown outside of its range in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.

Habitat

It occurs mostly in deciduous woodland or coniferous forests, especially in calcareous soils.