Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-163
Sweet Woodruff
Galium odoratum
European woodland groundcover grown for its coumarin-scented leaves, prized fresh in the Alsatian wine tonic Maitrank and dried for a fragrant tea, with a long list of minor dye and craft uses besides. It needs consistent moisture and full or semi shade, and once temperatures run around 100 F it goes dormant and dies back until cool, wet conditions return, so it only earns its keep as a groundcover where deep shade and moisture hold through summer. Dried leaves stored damp convert their coumarin to the anticoagulant dicoumarin, which can cause fatal internal bleeding, so keep it away from anyone on anticoagulant medication or who is pregnant.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate · Wet
Vertical layer
Groundcover- Soil pH
- 5.2–6
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 6–12 in
- Mature spread
- 9–18 in
- Plant spacing
- 10–14 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
Similar plants
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Bilberry
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Black Medick
Medicago lupulina
Black Medick is a low, sprawling nitrogen-fixing clover relative that forms a mowable mat through fall, winter and spring before dying back…
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Brahmi
Bacopa monnieri
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Carpet Bugle
Ajuga reptans
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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