The European wild ginger (foalfoot) is a poisonous evergreen herbaceous plant of the birthwort family. People have given many names to the foalfoot: ‘emetic root’, ‘injury herb’, ‘earth incense’. In total, there are about 70 synonyms — they denote various diseases that can be healed with foalfoot’s leaves and root. The herb’s useful properties were mentioned in the novel At Daggers Drawn by the writer Nikolay Leskov:
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Wild ginger
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‘— And here, at your very feet, grows the fragrant inula, it soothes chest pains; two steps away from you, I see the fiery cudweed that heals the falling sickness; over there the cymose hyssop grows on stones, for suffocation; there is the fragrant goosefoot there, for nerves; the vomiting foalfoot; the prairie crocus for backache <…> It is not hay here, my lord, but God’s pharmacy’.
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The foalfoot loves shady places and humus-rich soils: clay-loom and clay ones. It grows in such a way that sometimes it covers the entire soil like a uniform carpet. The foalfoot can be seen in deciduous and spruce forests, as well as in thickets of bushes, or under hazel trees. The closer to the North, the more often it is found in aspen and birch forests.
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The plant got its name due to the shape of its leaves. Dark green, glossy, they look like a horse hoof trail. Also, the leaf resembles a human kidney a bit, that is why the foalfoot is often called kidney-shaped. The perennial rises above the ground by five, maximum 10 centimetres. The flowering period begins in the fourth or seventh year of its life and falls on April-May. Ants pollinate the flowers, and also spread the seeds. This insect activity is called myrmecochoria.
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The foalfoot taste bitter. It exudes a sharp smell that becomes unpleasant if the flowers are rubbed by hand. The odour is a bit like the smell of the valerian. It also resembles black pepper, which is why the herb is sometimes called “forest pepper”.
The plant is poisonous and must be handled with care — however, in many countries in the world the foalfoot is used in medicine. In order to use it for medicinal purposes the leaves need to be collected at the height of flowering, and the roots in early spring.
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Sometimes the perennial finds a place in landscape design — it can be seen in shady gardens and parks.
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Kuzebay Gerd National Museum of the Republic of Udmurtia
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Wild ginger
Dimensions
40x30 cm
Technique
Гербаризация
Collection
Exhibition
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