Field of Science

Friday Fabulous Flower - Yellow Ginger

 OK but first a shout out to Earth Day.  TTP remembers the first Earth Day, but mostly because of all the other struff that was going on, mostly anti war things and the Kent State shootings, deciding to try out grad school to study botany, and other things.  Sorry, Earth.

This is called yellow ginger and it is not real ginger but a member of the Aristolochia or birthwort family. Our wild Ginger is almost a weed in our shade lawns and TPP first saw this plant at Brooklyn botanical garden back when it was still a botanical garden.  It is a smallish herbaceous perennial witth upright stems.  Our native wild ginger is Asarum canadense, a creeping plant with purple flowers along the prostrate stem often hidden from view by the heart shaped leaves.  This plant has 3-parted flowers although a dicot, and is quite fuzzy.  And it is the genus Saruma, and if you are quick with word games, you'll notice that Saruma is Asarum spelled backwards with the a moved to the end.  A botanical joke?   Enjoy.