Erigenia bulbosa
| Erigenia bulbosa | |
| Light: |  |
| Moisture: |  |
| Soil pH: | 5.6-8.4 |
| Self Pollinated | |
| Height: | 1' |
| Blooms: | Late Winter-Mid Spring |
| Open Woods Forest | |
| Native to: | |
| Edible Rating: |  |
| Medicinal Rating: |  |
| Tea: | Yes |
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Erigenia bulbosa (common name: harbinger of spring)
Propagation: Seed - sow spring in a greenhouse. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts.
Division of tubers.
Cultivation: Requires a shady position in a moisture-retentive humus-rich soil[1].
Grows well in the wild garden or in shaded pockets of the rock garden, though it might need protection from competition with other more vigorous plants[1].
Plants come into new growth and flower very early in the year[1].
Range: North-eastern N. America - S. Ontario to New York, west to Minnesota and Kansas.
Habitat: Rich moist woodland[1].
Edibility: Root - raw or cooked[2].
Medicinal: The plant has been chewed to bring relief from toothache[3]. No details are given as to which part of the plant is used.
Pollinators: Insects
Soil: Can grow in light, medium, and heavy soils.
Flower Type: Hermaphrodite
Links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Huxley, Anthony. The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. MacMillan Press, 1992.
- ↑ Coffey, Timothy. The History and Folklore of North American Wild Flowers. Facts on File, 1993.
- ↑ Moerman, Daniel. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press, 1998.