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WILD GINGER CANADA SNAKEROOT ASARABACCA
(Asarum Canadense) Birthwort family
Flower - Solitary, dull purplish brown, creamy white within,
about 1 in. broad when expanded, borne on a short peduncle close
to or upon the ground. Calyx cup-shaped, deeply cleft, its 3
acutely pointed lobes spreading, curved; corolla wanting; 12
short, stout stamens inserted on ovary; the thick style 6-lobed,
its stigmas radiating on the lobes. Leaves: A single pair, dark
green, reniform, 4 to 7 in. broad, on downy petioles 6 to 12 in.
high, from a creeping, thick, aromatic, pungent rootstock.
Preferred Habitat - Rich, moist woods; hillsides.
Flowering Season - March-May.
Distribution - North Carolina, Missouri, and Kansas, northward,
to New Brunswick and Manitoba.
Like the wicked servant who buried the one talent entrusted to
his care, the wild ginger hides its solitary flower if not
actually under the dry leaves that clothe the ground in the still
leafless woodlands, then not far above them. Why? When most
plants flaunt their showy blossoms aloft, where they may be seen
of all, why should this one bear only one dull, firm cup,
inconspicuous in color as in situation? In early spring - and it
is one of the earliest flowers - gnats and small flies are
warming into active life from the maggots that have lain under
dead leaves and the bark of decaying logs all winter. To such
guests a flower need offer few attractions to secure them in
swarms. Bright, beautiful colors, sweet fragrance, luscious
nectar, with which the highly specialized bees, butterflies, and
moths are wooed, would all be lost on them, lacking as they do
esthetic taste. For flies, a snug shelter from cold spring winds
such as Jack-in-the-pulpit, the marsh calla, the pitcher-plant,
or the skunk cabbage offers; sometimes a fetid odor like the
latter's, or dull purplish red or brownish color resembling stale
meat, which the purple trillium likewise wears as an additional
attraction, are necessary when certain carrion flies must be
catered to; and, above all, an abundance of pollen for food -
with any or all of these seductions a flower dependent on flies
has nothing to fear from neglect. Therefore the wild ginger does
not even attempt to fertilize itself. Within the cozy cup one can
usually find a contented fly seeking shelter or food. Close to
the ground it is warm and less windy. When the cup first opens,
only the stigmas are mature and sticky to receive any pollen the
visitors may bring in on their bodies from other asylums where
they have been hiding. These stigmas presently withering, up rise
the twelve stamens beside them to dust with pollen the flies
coming in search of it. Only one flower from a root compels
cross-fertilizing between flowers of distinct plants - a means to
insure the most vigorous seed, as Darwin proved. Evidently the
ginger is striving to attain some day the ambitious mechanism for
temporarily imprisoning its guests that its cousin the Dutchman's
pipe has perfected. After fertilization the cup nods, inverted,
and the leathery capsule following it bursts irregularly,
discharging many seeds.
No ruminant will touch the leaves, owing to their bitter juices,
nor will a grub or nibbling rodent molest the root, which bites
like ginger; nevertheless credulous mankind once utilized the
plant as a tonic medicine.
Next: DUTCHMAN'S PIPE PIPEVINE
Previous: ADAM AND EVE PUTTYROOT
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