Yellow Archangel, Lamiastrum galeobdolon, is a widespread European woodland plant that is fond of heavy soils. It will grow in very shady areas but also likes some sun and can pop up in abundance in areas that have been coppiced. It can also be found on waysides and verges. In the UK the plant is found more in the south and is relatively widespread as far north as Yorkshire, but less so…
Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum, is a common plant of country tracks and hedgerows. It is often found on or near farmland and sometimes described as an arable weed. Similar to other dead-nettles it has toothed, heart-shaped leaves. Red Dead-nettle, however, bears much less…
Even though White Dead-nettle is not an aromatic herb like some of its other family members, it is edible. White Dead-nettle, Lamium album has toothed, heart-shaped leaves that look very similar to the leaves of Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, a plant which is familiar to many. White Dead-nettles and Stinging Nettles also share other charcteristics such as having leaves arranged…
Greater Stitchwort, Stellaria holostea, is a very common plant of wayside verges and open woodlands. Until it flowers, however, it is easily missed. Greater Stitchwort is a relative of Common Chickweed, Stellaria media, and like Chickweed, Greater Stitchwort is an easily-collected source of edible wild greens…
Common Dog-violet, Viola riviniana, is the most common violet in the UK and provides some useful herbage for a wild salad. The leaves have a pleasant flavour with only a little bitterness and making it a wild food worth picking up as you forage, particularly in the spring. It flowers March to May and is then easy to spot but a little less so at other times. The leaves and flowers are edible…
The primrose is widespread throughout the UK and Europe. The flowers and leaves are often described as edible but there is research that suggests handling the plant might cause allergic contact dermatitis in some people…
Brooklime, Veronica beccabunga, is an edible leafy green plant of damp freshwater places. You can eat the leaves and stem. The name may be unfamiliar but the plant is relatively common. You’ll find brooklime growing in boggy ground (the sort in which you’d wished you’d worn boots, not shoes), on the damp margins of ponds, streams and rivers and sometimes…
The pignut, Conopodium majus, is one of the most palatable wild foods. The tuber can be eaten raw and is very tasty. To the uninitiated, pignuts can be hard to spot, particularly in the spring. But once you’ve been shown and know in which places to look, they are surprisingly common. Leaves appear in the spring, then…
Late winter and early spring is a lean time. As soon as shoots start to appear, however, there are some tender, young spring greens to gather. They grow quickly too – the early spring plants race to grow before the trees produce leaves and cut out much of the light to the forest floor. You must be careful though – early spring plants often have defence mechanisms by way of toxins…