SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN

Reviewing some non-poisonous plants.

Which Snow on the Mountain is intended by Sick Kids’ Hospital in their Information for Families – Plant Safety?

 We are told that a plant with that name is ‘known to be poisonous to humans’. When you enter Snow on the Mountain in a search engine you will find that there are two quite different plants: Aegopodium podagraria and Euphorbia marginata. Which one is supposed to be harmful? Perhaps it’s both. We are not given the scientific name and so must check on each of them.

Snow on the Mountain is not the commonest of common names for Aegopodium podagraria since you are more likely to find it being called Gout Weed, Bishop’s Weed, Ground Elder or even Herb Gerard. It is a native of southern Europe that was taken north by the Romans for its value as an early spring vegetable; as early as February in Britain. This would have been the all-green variety and not the green and white form as we know it today. When the plant flowers like those of Queen Anne’s Lace you will recognize its’ kinship to parsley and carrot. The common name Gout Weed is perhaps a corruption of Goat Weed. The genus name Aegopodium means Goat’s Foot. The specific epithet podagraria refers to the big toe, a common site of gouty arthritis. We do need and depend on the scientific name for every plant but there is no rule to ensure that the name is apt. In this case the plant has nothing to do with gout nor goats. Its' naming is a sorry mess.

     I can hardly leave the subject without mentioning that it is a persistent perennial that will be almost impossible to be rid of as each small piece of root becomes a vigorous new plant. It is a palatable vegetable although now quite overlooked and no longer thought of in that regard. It is not poisonous.

 So, if this is not the ‘poisonous’ Snow on the Mountain what about Euphorbia marginata?

(See my next blog spot) You might also go back to my article published in May 2011, CROTONS AND OTHER SPURGES.