UK Spring Edible Plants
An introduction to six common UK Spring plants every forager should get to know!
Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon)
Identification
Low-lying plant (unlikely to be higher than your knee, unless you’re very tiny).
Found in shady hedgerows, woods, and gardens.
Distinctive yellow flowers and a patterened triangular leaf that makes it look like a fancy stinging nettle, except it won’t sting you.
Part of the mint family, so will have the typical square stem - roll it between your fingers to feel the stem shape.
Also look out for other dead-nettle’s which have white or purple flowers but don’t have the variegated leaves of Yellow Archangel - they all have the same health and nutriitional benefits.
Medicinal & edible uses
Excellent for reducing inflammation, joint aches, arthritis, muscle damage and bruising.
You can eat it or make a tea from it and enjoy many health benefits and a nutritional profile similar to nettles, or you can make a poultice or balm with it for topical treatment for aches and sores.
Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)
Identification
Growing on single stalks but often found in large clusters making it look like one big plant. Has a vibrant green colour, and appears early in Spring so can stand-out against drab hedgerows. Kidney shaped leaves that become more triangular as the plant matures and the stalk gets to a metre or so in height. Clusters of little white flowers after a few weeks of growth.
Particularly fond of roadside verges and hedgerows, which gives rise to one of its many other names: ‘Jack-by-the-hedge’.
Medicinal & edible uses
Despite the common name, it’s neither a garlic nor a mustard and is in fact a cabbage! The leaves won’t smell or taste garlic-y until crushed, when a chemical reaction occurs as part of the plant’s natural defence.
Lovely mild garlic flavour with a hint of mustard heat. Can be eaten raw or cooked or used alongside other wild garlics to pimp up a pesto.
Dandelion (Taraxacum spp.)
Identification
One of the easiest plants to ID and a very common wild edible, but did you know there are actually over 200 specicies of Dandelion in the UK? They all have similar saw-toothed leaves (indeed, the name comes by way of the French ‘dents-de-lion’ - Lion’s tooth), grow in low rosettes, and have bright yellow multi-petal flowers.
Dandelion’s grow anywhere they feel like growing, making them the bane of block paving and gardeners.
Medicinal & edible uses
Dandelion’s are a genuine super food! If you look up the medicinal benefits the list is extensive, but it’s a very bitter plant to eat raw so you need to get inventive with Dandelion recipes to make the most of this abundant plant.
The unopened flower heads pickle well, and you can make a delicious ‘honey’ syrup from the flowers, but the roots pack the biggest punch when it comes to nutrition and they’re best picked early in the year as soon as you confidently identify the leaves but before the flowers appear.
Crow Garlic (Allium vineale)
Identification
If you can recognise chives, you’ll have no trouble identifying this plant because it looks (and tastes) exactly the same. Long, hollow stems with a distinctly onion smell when cut, growing in a bunch looking suspiciously like someone planted them.
Appears early in the year in hedgerows and grassland, but gets harder to spot as the other plants and grasses grow up around it.
Medicinal & edible uses
All of the Allium’s, or true garlics (see Garlic Mustard above for an imposter with garlic pretensions), are good for you. The health benefits range from fighting viruses and respitory issues, to cardiovascular support by lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. They’re also packed with vitamins.
Crow Garlic forms small bulbs and all parts are edible, but garlics all start to lose their health benefits when cooked so eat them raw for maximum effect.
Bonus: helps keep vampires (and anyone with a sense of smell) at bay.
Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea)
Identification
A very common plant, which you’ll find all year round but in most abundance in Spring. Mint family, so square stemmed and with little purple flowers in Spring. Often has a purple tinge to the plant too.
Generally in soggier ground but apart from that it seems unfussy about where it grows and you’ll find it in grassland, woodland, hedgerows and anywhere green.
Creeping, low-lying and with heart shaped leaves that look like a hoof print, which gives rise to another of it’s common names: Ale-hoof (the ale bit is because it was used to flavour beer before someone dicovered the virtues of hops).
Medicinal & edible uses
Long used as a lung medicine due to its expectorant and decongestant qualities.
It makes a good tea, and can be used fresh or dried, but the slight minty flavour is overlaid with a stronger earthy taste that some people find vaguely repulsive. Personally I like it best with some mint leaves or Meadowsweet to overpower the aftertaste.
Three-Cornered Leek (Allium triquetrum)
Identification
An invasive plant, but increasingly common and often growing in large patches that will gradually take over an area.
Appears over winter, and its bright green, elongated leaves are easy to spot. Could be confused with Daffodil’s or Snowdrops, but easily checked by crushing a leaf and giving it a sniff. Smell is your friend when it comes to identifying any garlic.
The flowers appear in early Spring as drooping clusters of white and have a distinctive green stripe inside each petal. If you cut a stem you’ll easily see the triangular shape that gives it the ‘three-cornered’ moniker.
Medicinal & edible uses
This is one of my favourite wild garlics, having a nice balance between the onion and garlic flavour profile, and growing in dense clumps that you needn’t feel guilty about picking since it’s not supposed to be here.
Every year I make a cracking pesto with Three-Cornered Leek, Ramsons (your classic ‘wild garlic’), Crow Garlic, and Garlic Mustard, but the potential for garlic/onion flavoured dishes is endless and you’ll get all those extra health benefits common to the garlic family, especially if you eat it raw or fermented.
