84 



MINT FAMILY (Labiate) 



GROUND IVY (Nepeta hederacea (L.) Trev.) (Glechoma hederacea L.). 



PLATE XXXIII. 



COMMON NAMES : Ground ivy is also known by the following English 

 names: Gill-over-the-ground, haymaids, creeping charlie, robin-run- 

 away, hedge maids. 



DESCRIPTION: Ground ivy is a low, creeping and trailing, hairy, 

 perennial herb, with round, scalloped leaves, green on both sides, one to 

 two inches wide, their short stalks placed opposite one another on the 

 square stem. The light blue corolla is three times the length of the hairy 

 calyx. The whole flower is only about half an inch long and not so wide. 

 The plant is in bloom from April until May or June. 



DISTRIBUTION : It has been introduced from Europe and is common in 

 waste places, on damp or shady ground about doorways and neglected 

 gardens. In the East it is found from Newfoundland to Ontario. It is 

 common in British Columbia. 



POISONOUS PROPERTIES : Like the catnip (N. Cataria L.) ground 

 ivy contains a volatile oil and bitter principle. 



ANIMALS AFFECTED : A fatal case (1915) of the poisoning of two 

 horses was reported to us from Prince Edward Island. The horses ate the 

 weed early in November when it afforded an abundance of fresh green in 

 contrast to the surrounding herbage. Our correspondent says: "The 

 horses panted continually. One lived for five days, the other eight days. 

 One would lie down occasionally, the other would not lie down. One ate 

 the plant till it died, the other refused to eat anything." 



H. C. Long quotes a case which came before the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries (England) in 1906, in which three horses became ill with 

 symptoms of poisoning, and the "only weed found in the lucerne they 

 were getting was ground-ivy, and this was suspected but not proved to be 

 the cause. In a further case, reported in 1909, eleven horses were believed 

 to have been poisoned by this weed, and in one of the dead horses 

 scarcely any food but ground-ivy was found, and to it the veterinary 

 surgeon in attendance attributed death." 



J. Ferenchazy (1914) reports a case of poisoning of nine horses, and 

 states that ground ivy "has occasioned no trouble in cattle and sheep that 

 consumed it." 



SYMPTOMS : The symptons of poisoning in horses as given by Ferenc- 

 hazy are "anxious look, dyspnoea, salivation, sweating, dilation of the 

 pupils, cyanosis, signs of pulmonary oedema." 



REMEDY AND MEANS OF CONTROL: On small patches the tops of 

 the plant may be easily raked off and destroyed. A shallow layer of the 

 soil may then be overturned to expose the numerous creeping rootstocks 

 in hot dry weather. The weed does not long persist on well-cultivated 

 land. 



