Greater Stitchwort

Whole carpets of Asarabacca are often found embellishing the undergrowth of broad-leaved forests, particularly in hilly country, in soils rich in humus. However, this favoured environment is not its only one: it is present, too, in shaded scree forests, ash/maple woodlands, mixed beech forests, and waterside ash woods. This is a plant of Europe and Siberia, although its numbers in Europe decline towards the north-west and it is extremely rare, and probably not native, in Britain.

Asarabacca was formerly used medicinally: as a treatment for eye and nose conditions, as a powerful emetic (and antidote, therefore, against some noxious substances), and the dried and crushed roots served as snuff. It was also often used to procure abortion. This plant contains the essential oil asaron, which accounts for its use as a mouse and rat poison.

The related Wood Stitchwort or Wood Chickweed (S. nemorum L.) grows in moist fertile soil in damp shrub growth alongside streams, particularly at higher altitudes, and in woods with alder and ash. However, it may also be found in broad-leaved forests as well as in mountain grassland.

Ramsons was at one time used as a remedy for digestive disorders, just as most plants of the genus Allitun were. It is of Eurasian origin. The Latin name A. ursinutn (bear’s allium) is reflected in the many common names it is known by in various languages.

Noteworthy are the violet-brown flowers, borne in April and May, which are symmetrical, hermaphroditic, with three joined petals, twelve stamens and a six-lobed stigma. They have a very aromatic scent reminiscent of pepper.

Perhaps it is the scent which has given rise to the suggestion – not confirmed by experts – that the plants are pollinated by snails, a notion reinforced by the fact the flowers are clustered so close to the ground. The seeds of asarums are dispersed by ants.