''Aegopodium'' is a plant genus of the family
Apiaceae
Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plan ...
native to Europe and western Asia. It is represented by about seven species, all are perennial herbs. Flowers are compounded, umbels appearing in spring-summer and are visited by many types of insect
pollinators
A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains.
Insects are the maj ...
.
Fruit consists of two-winged or ribbed nuts that separate on ripening.
The most well-known member is the ''
Aegopodium podagraria
''Aegopodium podagraria'', commonly called ground elder, is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae that grows in shady places. The name "ground elder" comes from the superficial similarity of its leaves and flowers to those o ...
'', the ground elder also known as snow-on-the-mountain, Bishop's weed, goutweed, native to Europe and Asia. It is variegated green and white that sometimes reverts to solid green within a patch. Small, white, five-petal flowers are held about three feet high, above the leaves, in flat topped clusters. Underground are long white branching rhizomes that vaguely resemble quackgrass. Regarded as an ecological threat, goutweed is aggressive, invasive and forms dense patches reducing species diversity in the ground layer. On the other hand, because of this, it is often used as a low maintenance ground cover.
Cultivation
Plants from this genus are frost hardy but drought tender, preferring moist well-drained soil in an open sunny position. They can be propagated from seed or rhizome.
Species
* ''
Aegopodium alpestre''
* ''
Aegopodium handelii''
* ''
Aegopodium henryi''
* ''
Aegopodium kashmiricum''
* ''
Aegopodium latifolium''
* ''
Aegopodium podagraria
''Aegopodium podagraria'', commonly called ground elder, is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae that grows in shady places. The name "ground elder" comes from the superficial similarity of its leaves and flowers to those o ...
''
* ''
Aegopodium tadshikorum''
References
* Lord, Tony, Flora: The Gardener's Bible, Cassell (London),2003
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20131001231720/http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/Goutweed.htm
* http://www.homolaicus.com/scienza/erbario/utility/botanica_sistematica/hypertext/0035.htm#000000 Botanica Sistematica
Apioideae
Apioideae genera
{{Apiaceae-stub
