“Where it hath once taken roote, it will hardly be gotten out againe, spoiling and getting euery yeere more ground, to the annoying of better herbes.” – John Gerard (1633).

Ground Elder shoots, spring

Ground Elder, Goutweed, Bishop’s Weed, Herb Gerard, Devil’s Guts, Aegopodium podagraria… Call it what you will, this plant was introduced as a pot herb, either by the Romans or in medieval times, but did rather too well for itself and rapidly became an unpopular weed. It is common in much of Britain (see distribution map) and was introduced into the United States by European settlers.

It is actually rather attractive, with bright green divided leaves in early spring that become darker green in summer, and delicate white umbels, which are very pretty. It is a very persistent weed because of its invasive underground rhizomes, hence the name “Devil’s Guts”. A small piece of root left behind in the soil will grow into a new plant and the roots are capable of colonising the ground at an alarming rate. In open ground it’s possible to dig all the roots out of the soil, but anywhere there is a shrub, clumps of hardy perennials or a wire fence, where the garden fork cannot reach, the plant will continue to lurk, sending out new rhizomes when the gardener’s back is turned.

We eliminated Ground Elder in our back garden after many years of digging and hand weeding, with the plant invading from the middle of an Escallonia bush. Finally we spent one spring picking every leaf we found, as soon as it emerged, and by the end of spring we’d won the battle. (Read more about Ground Elder elimination here.)

We have Ground Elder in The Belvedere Centre garden, luckily just along the edge of one shady border, and I hope we can eliminate it here, or at least keep it in check.

One option for controlling Ground Elder is to eat the leaves. Until this spring I had never tried eating them, as the older leaves have quite a pungent smell which put me off. But today I sampled my first leaf and it was rather good, with a distinctive taste – an initial tang then a taste a bit like parsley or celery but not quite either. The leaves can be used in salads or cooked like a parsley-flavoured spinach. There are many recipes, so you will have an interesting and varied diet if you decide to munch your way through a patch of it.

Avoid older Ground Elder leaves, which are a bit papery in texture, slightly laxative and lose their pleasant flavour. By continuous picking you can ensure a steady supply of young leaves – provided you haven’t eliminated the plant altogether (some hope, you say!).

Ground Elder was once used as a herbal remedy for gout, hence the names “Goutweed”, podagraria (podagra is Latin for gout) and Herb Gerard (St. Gerard allegedly used Ground Elder to cure gout). Aegopodium means “little goat’s foot” and refers to the shape of the leaves, as does the name Ground Elder – the leaves resemble those of the Elder bush, Sambucus nigra.

Ground Elder is certainly good for you, with high levels of vitamin C and also iron, calcium, magnesium and beta-carotene. Gout is caused by too much uric acid and Vitamin C reduces uric acid levels in the bloodstream and so perhaps the use of Ground Elder to cure gout has some scientific basis.

Ground Elder also contains a furanocoumarin called angelicin (reference), which has antibacterial properties (Brkovi? L. Duško, Ljiljana ?omi?, Slavica Soluji?-Sukdolak, Kragujevac J. Sci. 28 (2006) 65-72, “ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF SOME PLANTS FROM FAMILY APIACEAE IN RELATION TO SELECTED PHYTOPATHOGENIC BACTERIA”). Although furanocoumarins can cause phytophotodermatitis (see my post on Parsnips), I haven’t been able to find any evidence that Ground Elder can cause skin burns in the same way that Giant Hogweed, Parsnips or Celery can.

There is a variegated form of Ground Elder, Aegopodium podagraria “Variegatum”, and this is listed in the excellent Royal Horticultural Society “Encyclopaedia of Perennials” (Dorling Kindersley, 2011). Sometimes called “Snow-on-the-Mountain” it is very ornamental but the book wisely warns “think carefully before planting – and if in doubt, don’t!” One safe option is to grow this in a large container, keeping it well watered and removing the flowers before they set seed. There is also another cultivated form whose leaves have pale yellow edges, called, rather appropriately, “Dangerous”.