Wild Ginger, Asarum canadense
We've added this item, not because it's a fern or fern allie, but because we sell it in the spring...Sorry!
There are about seventy plants in the wild ginger genus, but they are not related to the "true", or commercial, ginger, although some wild food enthusiasts report that they have pulverized the rootstock into a powder or candied it as a substitute for the commercial product...
Personally, I think it smells and tastes like black pepper, mild pepper taste.

North American Indians often used wild ginger to disguise spoiled meat and to flavor food. In Canada a preperation of the plant served as a remedy for heart palpitations for some indian tribes. In 1837 this heart medicine was offered to Dr. Stephen Williams of Deerfeild, Massachusetts, who said he offended the vistiting red men when he refused it. Indian women liked wild ginger for another reason-they favored it to induce a normal mensrual cycle. The pioneers used the plant to ease intestinal and stomach gas, to promote sweating to break a fever, and as a tonic to stimulate appetite.
I've personally used it as a sinus unclogger...
Validity:
Studies show that the use for stimulating appetite and relieving gas pains may be valid.
Studies also indicate that wild ginger has the potential for causing cancer.....

We sell this item spring through fall as a shade loving ground cover!!! See eBay or Yahoo auctions... or email us mike@iceweb.net