Bitter together

Peppery, rocket-like and best eaten raw, this warming winter weed adds a decorative flourish to any humble salad, finds John Wright

ANYONE with a garden, or even a pot plant on the terrace, will be all too familiar with hairy bittercress. Not being a perennial, it is less troublesome than other weeds, but nevertheless very persistent and able to appear uninvited on any piece of bare soil that is left alone for more than three days. It is a small plant with a rosette of basal leaves that will quickly develop a leafed flower spike from the centre, growing from zero to seed in only a few weeks. The tiny flowers consist of four white petals, placing the plant conspicuously in the cabbage family. The leaves consist of multiple, rounded, opposite pairs of leaflets, with a larger, rounded terminal leaflet. If that is not enough to assure you that you have…

You're reading a preview of

Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 26, 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.