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

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

Goosegrass

a.k.a. Cleavers or Bedstraw

Galium aparine

NL: Kleefkruid / F: Gaillet gratteron

Goosegrass is known in the herbalist’s world as a blood purifier, an essential ingredient of any good herbal detox mix, or spring cleanser formula. Due to its detoxifying as well as diuretic properties, it is employed to treat a series of ailments such as wounds, skin inflammations, ulcers, eczema and even psoriasis. 

The detoxifying work of goosegrass seems to be partly linked to its ability to the cleanse lymphatic system. In popular medicine it is said to help to heal various glandular disorders, including tonsillitis, hepatitis and even some thyroid disorders.

Its aerial parts are also astringent, tonic, depurative, vulnerary. It is also antiphlogistic and febrifuge, making it a helpful herb to include in conditions that involve fevers.

Some herbalists claim that goosegrass is more effective when its fresh juice is used.

In principle the plant is edible, preferably its young shoot tops, collected in spring time. Its seeds lightly roasted seem to make a good coffee substitute. 

Attention: The sap of the plant can cause severe skin irritation in sensitive people.

More on this herb:

Galium aparine - PFAF

Bedstraw / Cleavers - Maria Treben Herbs

Flora of the Netherlands: Cleavers - video to help you identify this plant

Speedwell

Veronica filiformis

NL: (Draad)ereprijs / F: Véronique filiforme

This plant can be easily recognized from its purplish little flowers that, together with the gorgeous daisies, make grass fields everywhere look like stunning nature creations. 

But speedweel is not only a cute little plant. It is employed in herbal preparations as anti inflammatory, tonic, expectorant and diaphoretic. Speedwell has also diuretic, depurative, liver protective and tonic properties. It is astringent (it contains tannins) and bitter. Many herbalists use it to relieve various types of allergies.

Externally it can be used in ointments to treat skin inflammations, wounds and eczema.

It used to be consumed as a tonic and relaxing tea in England.

There are still some other medicinal uses that have been attributed to speedwell, such as to ease gastrointestinal troubles, rheumatic complaints and even to increase memory, reduce vertigo and to treat depression.

There are various other similar species from the Veronica family, such as Veronica arvensis or V. chamaedrys that have shown similar medicinal properties and that also have similar purple flower.

It is a lovely and great addition to any ecological garden, as ground cover.

Veronica chamaedrys

Veronica officinalis

More information on Speedwell:

What is Speewell?

Speewell, by A Modern Herbal

Common Speedwell, short video