A beautiful old fashioned herb garden ground cover for shady places with whorls of light green leaves and many tiny fragrant star-shaped white flowers in May. In fact it's the flavoring for May Wine and is a traditional strewing herb. It is also used to flavor beer, brandy, sausages, ice cream and jams. The leaves have a slight vanilla odor when first picked which becomes stronger when dried due to their coumarin content. Pot-pourri and sachets made from this are supposed to repel moths. Considered anti-inflamatory, diuretic and tonic. Prefers rich, moist acidic soil. Deer resistant. Formerly known as Asperula odorata.