Aegopodium podagraria Variegata

Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegata' is an excellent hardy ground cover to be adopted at the foot of a tree, in the undergrowth. Some use it in the vegetable garden as an edible and medicinal plant.

This perennial forms a dense leafy carpet with light green leaves marginated with white, composed of 3 finely toothed ovate lanceolate leaflets on which appear umbels of very small white flowers between May and August.

Originally from northern Eurasia, Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegata' is found in the wild in shady situations, on the edge of woods and under deciduous woods... You can take inspiration from it in a wild garden. It can be established in any soil with a preference for fresh and chalky soils.

Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegata' grows rapidly and can become invasive as its expansion occurs mainly through its deep rhizomes. This colonizing force is such that it prevents any competition where it settles, to the point of causing the death of perennials and small bushes that surround it. It is therefore ideal for dressing and brightening a shaded tree base where nothing grows, provided that its expansion is monitored beyond the reserved area.

Furthermore, due to its edible nature and medicinal virtues which have earned it the name of Herb of the gouty , you can plant it in the vegetable garden or in a cottage garden, preferably in a pot that you can bury, alongside Common Angelica, Common Agrimony, Common or Fragrant Verbena, and the Roman Chamomile. Still used today in some countries as a vegetable or aromatic herb, it has been known since antiquity to treat gout.