Title | Ginger |
Origtitle | Asarum caudatum F. album at Digging Dog |
Variants | Wild Ginger |
Caption | Wild Ginger plant |
Source | Digging Dog Nursery Perennials |
URL | www.diggingdog.com/page2/plantpages.php/P-1548 |
Origin | website |
Ginger – Not mentioned in Hariot, but in Barlowe and Grenvile, this term refers to the spicy root used in the culinary and, at the time, medicinal arts. That Hariot failed to mention it at all suggests possible misidentification on the part of Barlowe, who was speaking of the Native Americans’ beverages (probably wild ginger, genus Asarum, as opposed to “true” ginger, Zingiber officinale), but not Grenvile, who was in the Caribbean where the ginger had been transplanted from the East Indies for cultivation. - Matt