You can use these characteristics to identify it

The leaves - the most distinctive feature

The most distinctive feature of the Giersch are its leaves. They are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The stem becomes up to 20 cm long and the leaf blade is divided into three leaflets.

The individual leaflets are blue-green to medium-green in color and hairy on the underside. The top is bare. While the shape of the leaflets is ovate-elongated, their edge is jagged and their end is pointed.

Flowers provide little information

the blossoms Giersch appear from May and can be present on isolated plants until September. It is difficult to distinguish the ground elder from other plants by its flowers alone. There are plenty of umbellifers that resemble it.

The flowers of the ground elder have these properties:

• terminal on long stalks
• flat umbels
• 10 to 20 small umbels per inflorescence
• white to slightly reddish
• numerous tiny individual flowers
• without bracts
• fivefold
• hermaphrodite

What do the fruits and seeds look like?

After the flowering period is over, the seed heads form. They look not very spectacular with their initially green and later brownish color. To get the ground elder by means of its fruits or To be able to recognize seeds correctly, you have to take a closer look!

The fruits are split fruits in two parts. These are about 3 to 4 mm long. They are egg-shaped and smooth. Visually they are reminiscent of caraway seeds. The reason is that the ground elder is closely related to caraway.

Further characteristics to be able to recognize the ground elder correctly

But that's not all. There are a few more features that you can use to identify the ground elder:

• Triangular, hollow stem in cross section
• 1 to 3 mm thick, long, white roots
• Height between 70 and 100 cm (during the flowering period)
• early budding
• often evergreen
• forms a lot of runners (usually not just one plant, but several)

Where Giersch can be found in abundance - occurrence

Not only the exterior can serve as a key to identify it. The occurrence of ground elder also helps with the determination. This weed grows preferably in hedges and bushes, in deciduous and mixed forests, on streams and river banks, on roadsides, in parks and gardens. It loves shady locations and nitrogenous, moist soils.

Play it safe: smell and taste test

When you are almost 100% sure that the plant in front of you is not the hemlock, dog parsley, or any other If it is a poisonous member of the umbelliferae family, you can use the odor and taste test to determine your determination to nail down.

The ground elder smells like a mixture of carrot and parsley when rubbed with the fingers. It is extremely tasty and it is not for nothing that it is also affectionately referred to as forest parsley. Its taste is reminiscent of parsley or spinach. It is spicy, aromatic and fresh. The flowers taste sweet and the fruits have an idiosyncratic spiciness.

Not to be confused with Bibernelle, Wild Carrot, Bear Claw and Co

There are some plants that are used by the ground elder Confound looking similar. This includes, for example elder. Its leaves resemble those of the ground elder when it shoots.

The Bibernelle and the hogweed also have foliage that looks similar to that of the ground elder. The wild carrot forms flower umbels that look like ground grass. Keep this in mind in case you have the Fight ground elder want!