2020 Plant of the Year, Honorable Mention

Proposed by: a member of Indianapolis Garden Club, Zone X
Seconded by: a member of Indianapolis Garden Club, Zone X

This North American wild ginger is a lovely, soft green, shade-loving herbaceous perennial. It colonizes to form a graceful ground cover that successfully competes with non-native plants. In the summer its 6” heart-shaped leaves carpet moist to dry shady sites as a welcome foil to blazing sun. It is a food source for Battus philenor (L.), pipevine swallowtail, is deer resistant, and unpalatable to other mammals. A low maintenance plant, it grows well in many soil types and acid to alkaline soil. 

Photo Credit: Wasp32,  Asarum canadense 4,  CC BY 4.0 Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Berkeley, CA in April 2007