Common name is in reference to a former use of the plant in the treatment of gout. The name ground elder comes from the superficial Mat och Bakning of its leaves and flowers to those of elder Sambucuswhich is unrelated. It is the type species of the genus Aegopodium.
This species has been introduced around the world as an ornamental plant, where it occasionally poses an ecological threat as an invasive exotic plant. In folk medicine, mainly the leaves of goutweed were used to treat gout, inflammatory states in kidneys and bladder and to facilitate wound healing.
Goutweed is a creeping, herbaceous perennial plant that normally grows from 4 to 12 inches cm tall, but it may grow to as tall as about 3 feet 1 m. The plant is found growing in hedgerows, cultivated land, grasslands, forests, gardens, logged areas, abandoned fields, pastures, roadsides, disturbed areas, woodland edges, churchyards, parks, flower beds, graveyards, shaded ravines, cemeteries and waste areas.
The plant is easily grown in average, dry to medium, well-drained soils in sun or shade. The plant has extensive root system that includes a main root and lateral roots. Stem is short, hollow, with longitudinal grooves and rims, glabrous or covered with short-branched hairs.
It contain only one set of leaves until the flower stem appears. Stalks are light green and glabrous. The basal and lower leaves are bipinnate with leaflets, while the upper leaves are pinnate with 3 leaflets. The leaflets of basal and lower leaves are inches long and 1¼-2 inches across.
They are medium to dark green, more or less ovate in shape, serrate or doubly serrate along their margins, and hairless or nearly so. Some leaflets may be deeply cleft into two lobes. The leaflets of upper leaves are smaller in size and narrower in shape lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate ; otherwise they are similar to the leaflets of the preceding leaves.
The petioles of basal and lower leaves are inches long, while the petioles of upper leaves are less than 4 inches long. These petioles are light green and hairless. The petioles of alternate leaves are sheathed at their bases. The petiolule of the terminal group of leaflets is inches long, while the petiolules of the lateral groups of leaflets are about 1 inch long.
In each group of leaflets, the lateral leaflets are sessile or nearly so, while the terminal leaflet has a secondary basal stalklet that is nearly sessile to 1 inch long. The stalks terminate in compound umbels of flowers about 1½-3½ inches across that are flat-topped.
Each compound umbel is divided into umbellets, while each umbellet is divided into flowers. The compound umbels lack floral bracts and the umbellets lack floral bractlets. The peduncles of the compound umbels are inches long, light green, glabrous, angular, and grooved.
The pedicels of individual flowers are about ¼ inches in length, light green, and glabrous.