Ground elder - weeds, medicinal herbs, foods and weeds
In fact, ground grass is a whole lot of a medicinal herb, a food, a weed, and a weed among others. It belongs to the umbelliferous plant family and can often be found in this country, for example in bushes, deciduous forests and - to the chagrin of gardeners - in gardens.
also read
- Ground elder Use: In the kitchen and natural medicine
- Fight or eat ground elder with potatoes
- The ground elder during its heyday
This plant heralds spring, it blooms in summer and likes to settle next to nettles. It used to be valued as a medicinal plant and used, among other things, for heart disease and gout. It was also a valuable source of food in times of famine.
An underrated medicinal herb
While in the past one knew about the power dormant in the ground elder, today one walks past it blindly and does not know about its healing properties. Giersch (and especially its leaves) have anti-inflammatory, strengthening, detoxifying, deacidifying, diuretic and antispasmodic effects.
Giersch - whether fresh, dried or in oil, as a tincture, as a bath additive or as a poultice - you can use, for example, for:
- Toothache
- Tension
- rheumatism
- gout
- to cough
- sniff
- Burns and sunburn
Giersch as food
Giersch can be used in the kitchen as a vegetable and as a seasoning herb. It is edible and has a reminiscent of parsley when raw and spinach when cooked. In addition to eating the leaves, you can eat the flowers and seeds as well. The seeds taste hot and the flowers pleasantly sweet.
The leaves of the ground elder can be prepared like spinach. They are also suitable for pestos, sauces, stews and smoothies. They are rich in vitamins and minerals. But admittedly: they are not to everyone's taste ... However, if you want to do yourself something good and would like something wild to land on the table from outside, try the groundweed!
A difficult weed to control
But this wild plant also has a negative side, which is particularly evident to those who value a well-tended, typically German garden. The ground elder, which can be recognized by toothed, three-part leaves and a triangular stem, forms subterranean runners.
With its foothills, the ground elder can colonize to mass populations (hemicryptophyte). Even if it is hacked, it survives and keeps shooting again. Fighting it is therefore a tedious and often nerve-racking affair.
Tips
Giersch can also be found under the names Zipperleinskraut, Geißfuß, Podagrakraut and (botanically) Aegopodium podagraria.
