Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate forest
Range: Eurasia
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Runners
Defense: Camouflage
Status: Common

About

Goutweed is a tenacious herbaceous perennial in the carrot family, notorious as one of the hardest garden weeds to eradicate — even tiny root fragments left in soil will regrow. Its variegated form is sold as ornamental ground cover, but the species spreads aggressively and was historically used as a folk remedy for gout.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Genus: Aegopodium
Species: Aegopodium podagraria