Angelica atropurpurea
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Common Name: masterwort
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Apiaceae
Zone: 4 to 7
Native Range: Central and eastern United States
Height: 3 to 10 feet
Spread: 2 to 6 feet
Bloom Time: June to September
Bloom Color: White
Bloom Description: White to greenish-white
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium to wet
Maintenance: Low
Flowers: Showy Flowers
Tolerates: Wet Soil, Deer
Uses: Rain Garden, Will Naturalize

Culture

Easily grown in medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Perhaps best in sun dappled shade. May be grown from seed and may self-seed in optimum growing conditions if spent flower umbels are not removed.

Noteworthy Characteristics

Purple-stemmed angelica (also commonly called Alexanders) is a large herbaceous perennial which grows from 3-10' tall with smooth, dark purple or purple-blotched stems. Native to swampy areas and stream banks from Newfoundland to Minnesota south to Delaware and Illinois. Features tiny greenish-white to white flowers arranged in large, compound umbels (4-10" diameter). Flowers bloom June to September. Compound leaves are biternate to triternate with ovate, toothed individual leaflets. Native Americans used the young stems and leaf stalks as a cooked vegetable.

Problems

No serious insect or disease problems.

Garden Uses

This is a large perennial that needs lots of space, some shade and moist to wet soils. Water gardens, stream/pond banks or wet meadows. Peripheries of borders or herb gardens as long as soil moisture requirements can be met.

Similar Plants


Angelica archangelica
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