Wild ginger is usually hard to find as the flowers stay under the leaves and are pollinated by beetles. As it doesn't grow very high it is also well hidden in the woods. One of my favorites. Wild Ginger ( photo / image / picture from Kildale's Garden )
We have a couple species of those growing around here except the flowers on ours aren't as extravagant as that one. It seems yours belongs to the Asarum genera while mine is in the Hexastylis genera, both of which are in the same family. They grow and are pollinated in much the same way though. Hexastylis ( photo / image / picture from FlowerFreak22's Garden ) KK, they do not taste the same to me, although, I have only tasted the leaves of wild ginger and only tasted the pickled version of the ginger root.
Kildare, you have such a nice garden you should try growing some. I got a small 4" pot of the BC ginger several years ago from a native plant sale. Now I have some really nice ground cover of the ginger. It spreads kind of with what looks like stems that root (runners? but not really). I now have three, four foot clumps. It seems to like domestication. I think deer must eat it in the wild. Most plants I've seen in the wild looked munched on. Slugs don't bother mine. I didn't the flowers were fertilized by beetles. Interesting. Makes sense since the flowers lay on the ground under the leaves. My ginger continues to spread. It moved into the area I moved some baby trilliums (I moved the trillium from where they seeded in the lawn). I also got some piggyback plants, another native that is really taking off...it might like it too much in the woodland area under the firs. It is exciting to me to have natives in my yard. Bear grass, trillium, ginger ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Trillium, BC ginger ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )
