Wood Avens

Geum urbanum

NL: Geel nagelkruid /
F: Benoîte


Other popular names: herb Bennet, colewort and St. Benedict's herb.

Wood avens, as its name suggests, is found in woodlands and other shady places.

The young leaves can be eaten, cooked as potherb. Older leaves can be dried and powdered to be added to herbal salt. The roots can be harvested either in spring, when they can be more aromatic, or from september until late in the winter, as long as the soil is not so hard frosted. The root is the most popular part of this plant to be used in culinary creations. It adds an aromatic hint of cinnamon and cloves to dishes, soups or drinks, such as lemonades or chai.

Wood avens has a long list of medicinal properties. It is a good astringent herb that can help treat diarrhea, hemorrhoids, vaginal discharges, mouth ulcers, throat inflammation. It relieves irritable bowel syndrome and various other gastro-intestinal disorders. In old folk medicine it was believed to be a remedy against poison and dog and snake bites. It apparently helps the liver to do its “detox” work.

Particularly the roots have antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. A decoction of the roots can be used as wash to disinfect and heal skin problems. It is even said to help remove spots, freckles and to smooth the skin. A nice ingredient to add to our beauty creams!

The roots are also popular in folk medicine to relieve fevers. It can be dried and stored to be used as first aid remedy, as a quinine substitute, in intermittent fevers.

The dried root can also be also used to make moth repellent sachets for linen cupboards.

In the link below you can have a photographic tour to help you to identify this plant:

Geum urbanum

More information on this plant:

Wood Avens Health Benefits

Geum urbanum - PFAF

Wood Avens, Edibility, Identification, Distribution, by Galloway Wild Foods

White Clover

Trifolium repens

NL: Witte klaver / F: Trèfle blanc

White clover is found growing abundantly in various types of environments and soils. In urban areas it can be spotted all over grass fields as it is widely used to improve lawn quality. It is one of the most popular, easy-to-use green manure plants, helping to fix nitrogen into the soil, strengthening the health of the surrounding plants. It is particularly great to be sown together with crops from the grass family, such as rye, barley, rice... Permaculture master Masanobu Fukuoka used it widely in his highly productive rice fields. 

White clover is also an amazing “living mulch”. It makes a great soil cover, keeping it moist, helping to restore soil fertility and preventing erosion. It is thus handy to have it grown for instance on the sides of raised garden beds or as cover for pathways. It also attracts bees and other pollinators.

It is a highly nutritious edible, particularly the young leaves, which can be eaten raw or prepared as spinach.  The young leaves should be harvested before the plant comes into flower. Flowers and seed pods are also edible and can be dried in a shadowy, ventilated place and kept for further use. The flowers can be used in tea infusions and the dried seeds can be powdered and used to enrich the mineral and protein content of cooked meals. Do not eat the seeds raw.

In the history of herbal medicine white clover has been used as a general tonic, to prevent and treat rheumatic conditions, colds, coughs and also as depurative. The flowers can be prepared as infusion to be used in eye lotions or genital wash to treat leucorrhoea. 

Here is an interesting article on why to grow white clover in the garden:

6 reasons why I choose white clover as a living mulch:

And here is a short video with a few tips on how to eat it and use it medicinally:

White Dutch Clover (Trifolium repens) LuminEarth

Ground Elder

Aegopodium podagaria

NL: Zevenblad / F: 
L'égopode podagraire

Also known as goutweed, ground elder is one of the first abundant edible greens that appear in spring time, together with cow parsley and nettles. It has a long history of being used as medicine-food. It was cultivated as food crop in the middle ages (probably before that too), and that seems to me a very smart thing since it is such a strong plant that does not need much care, growing strongly in harsh conditions, at a time when not many other plant foods are available. 

The young tender leaves are preferred, before the plant is in flower. The flowering point can be postponed however by harvesting the top of the plants regularly. When the leaves are a bit more mature they can get a less appealing taste and they may act as laxative. Choosing only younger leaves before the flowers come out seems to be the way to go! They can be prepared as spinach, in stews, soups, sandwich, pies, you name it.

In old folk medicine ground elder got a good reputation for helping to prevent and treat gout, arthritis and rheumatic complaints. For that purpose, ground elder was particular popular in its external applications, as warm poultice (leaves and roots). A poultice of the leaves can also be employed to help heal burns, bites and wounds. It is also diuretic and has a mild sedative effect. 

Here is a video to help you to identify ground elder:

Ground Elder - Aegopodium podagaria - WildFoodUK

Wild Chervil

Anthriscus sylvestris

NL: Fluitenkruid /F: Cerfeuil sauvage

Wild chervil or cow parsley is found covering wide areas wherever humans have not worked out the land. Leaves and seeds are all edible, raw or cooked and its taste  is stronger than that from garden chervil, similar to carrot leaves. Young leaves taste much milder, somewhat between parsley and fennel. The root is also edible and it is said to be a general tonic, where soaked for several days in rice water (water from washing the rice), and then cooked with other vegetables.

This plant has poisonous look-alikes, such as hemlock   (Conium maculatum or Cicuta spp.) and fool’s parsley (Aethusa cynapium). One of the distinguishing features between them being that wild chervil has stout, pale green furrowed and slightly hairy stems. In contrast fools' parsley has thin, hairless ribbed and hollow stems. 

Hemlock has stout, smooth stems that are often (not always!) purple-spotted. Please, do not count only on these identification criteria and if you're going to pick wild chervil always take a proper field guide with you and look at the leaves and flowers as well as the stems. Other, most “innocent” look alike plants are yarrow, wild carrot, sweet cicely, angelica and valerian. 

Cow parsley has three or four subspecies and about 15 different varieties. Studies have shown that the plant contains chemical compounds which have been reported to have anti-proliferative, anti-tumor, and anti- viral activities against human cancer cells.

The root from Anthriscus sylvestris has been used in Chinese medicine for centuries to treat fractures, contusions, strains, cough, bronchitis and asthma due to lung weakness. 

Here are some videos that help identify and differentiate cow's parsley from hemlock and from fool’s parsley:

Hemlock x Cow's Parsley: Can you tell the difference? by Robin Harford

Wild plant food journey's - Anthriscus sylvestris wild chervil 

Poisonous Hemlock identification

Poison Hemlock Deadly - Caution!

Fool’s parsley

Water hemlock

More on Wild chervil:

Nobanis Fact Sheets: Anthriscus sylvestris

Sow Thistle

Sonchus oleraceus

NL: Melkdistel / F: Laiteron

This plant has powerful medicinal properties, with some toxicity, but at the same time it is also highly nutritious. It contains, per 100g, around 30mg of vitamin C, 1500 mg of Calcium and 45 mg of Iron. The dried leaves contain up to 28g of protein per 100g - a great nutritional supplement. Use only young leaves as edibles, raw, in salads or cooked, as spinach.

In the garden, they perform great function as a “sacrificial plants”, helping to control some fly, moths and aphids that attack some plants.

This strong plant grabs every little chance to grow.

Its applications in traditional folk medicine around the world are numerous: blood purifier, hepatic, sedative, febrifuge, tonic, pectoral, and there are even mentions of its use to treat cancer and to help people to quit opium addiction. Its white “milk” can be used to get rid of warts (like other milky plants).






Here is a video to help you to properly identify Sow Thistle:
Spiny-Leaved Sow Thistle, by the New Survivalist


More information on the medicinal properties of this plant:
Earth Medicine Institute: Sonchus oleraceus


Here you can get a thorough course on this plant:
Sonchus oleraceaus - Survival Plants Memory Course