Ground elder

Aegopodium podagraria · Carrot family (Apiaceae)

Also called bishop's weed or goutweed (New Zealand and North America), snow-on-the-mountain (the variegated garden form).

Illustration

Beds and shady bordersPerennialSpreads by shallow creeping roots

A carpet of leafy ground cover with flat white flower heads that creeps through borders on shallow white roots. Every root piece regrows, so it takes steady, repeated removal over a few years.

How to spot it

Leaves on long stalks, each divided into three groups of three leaflets (upper leaves have just three).
Leaflets oval, pointed and toothed, 2.5–8 cm long, often only partly separated.
A dense carpet 30–60 cm tall, with hollow, grooved flower stems up to 1 m.
Flat white flower heads 6–12 cm across in summer, with no small leafy bracts beneath them.
Shallow white or cream creeping roots that smell of carrot when broken.

Easily confused with

Poison hemlock

Deadly: finely divided, fern-like leaves and a smooth stem with purple spots.

Elder seedlings

Woody stems, and leaves in opposite pairs with five to seven leaflets.

Wild carrot

Feathery leaves, bracts under the flower head, and often a single purple flower in the middle.

Where it's a problem

United Kingdom: Brought in long ago, and now a common and invasive garden weed.
Australia: Naturalised in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania.
New Zealand: Naturalised since the 1940s.
North America: Restricted or prohibited in several US states, including Vermont, Connecticut and Wisconsin.

What to do

Pull or cut new growth again and again: each time weakens the roots.
Fork out the roots, which are shallow (mostly in the top 15 cm), and sift the soil for pieces.
In a planted border, lift your plants, pick every weed root out of them, and replant.
Smother bare areas for a few years under cardboard and about 20 cm of mulch, or under weed fabric.
Sink a root barrier about 45 cm deep to stop it creeping back in, and mow it where it meets a lawn.

If you use a herbicide, choose one labelled for ground elder and follow the label and local rules. The RHS doesn't support using weedkillers on it; where they are used, several treatments are usually needed.

Follow your local council's guidance for disposing of weeds. Councils usually advise against putting weeds like this in the green waste / vegetation bin or the compost.

Take care: The real danger is confusing it with poison hemlock, which is deadly.

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Sources

Facts checked Sunday 27 September 2026. General guidance only: follow your local council, agency and product label.