Herbs: Advanced

Mugwort

Mugwort is a tall wild plant with silvery-haired undersides to its leaves: a classic seasoning for rich roasts.

💡 Did you know? Mugwort is a classic seasoning for roast goose.

Wormwood

Wormwood has silvery-grey foliage and tastes intensely bitter; its very name is a byword for bitterness.

💡 Did you know? Wormwood gives vermouth and absinthe their bitterness.

Hyssop

Hyssop is a small shrub with narrow leaves and blue flowers: a favourite monastery-garden herb since the Middle Ages.

💡 Did you know? Hyssop is an old monastery-garden herb with a spicy-bitter aroma.

Borage

Borage has rough, hairy leaves and bright blue star-shaped flowers: both leaves and flowers are edible.

💡 Did you know? Borage tastes freshly of cucumber.

Vervain

Vervain is an unassuming wild plant with tiny pale-violet flowers and a long tradition as a medicinal herb.

💡 Did you know? Vervain is traditionally used for calming teas.

St John's wort

St John's wort blooms bright yellow around Midsummer (24 June): crushing the flowers stains the fingers red.

💡 Did you know? St John's wort is used for low mood.

Yarrow

Yarrow has finely feathered leaves and white flower clusters: it grows on almost any roadside.

💡 Did you know? Yarrow was long valued as a wound-healing herb.

Ribwort plantain

Ribwort plantain has narrow, ribbed leaves and grows commonly in meadows and along paths.

💡 Did you know? Ribwort plantain is used for coughs and insect bites.

Valerian

Valerian grows over a metre tall with delicate pink-white flower clusters; its root has a pungent smell.

💡 Did you know? Valerian is known as a natural calming and sleep aid.

Lady's mantle

Lady's mantle has distinctive fan-folded leaves that hold glistening water droplets in the morning.

💡 Did you know? Dewdrops gather like pearls on lady's mantle leaves in the morning.

Comfrey

Comfrey is a robust plant with rough leaves and bell-shaped violet flowers, often on damp banks.

💡 Did you know? Comfrey was once called 'knitbone' and used for bruises.

Coltsfoot

Coltsfoot shows its yellow, dandelion-like flowers very early in the year: the large leaves appear only afterwards.

💡 Did you know? Coltsfoot flowers very early, often before its leaves appear.

Ground-ivy

Ground ivy is a low creeper with small violet lipped flowers and rounded leaves.

💡 Did you know? Ground ivy was used to flavour beer before hops.

Ground elder

Ground elder spreads rapidly via runners: its three-part leaves are known by the triangular leaf stalk.

💡 Did you know? Ground elder is a stubborn weed: but edible.

Watercress

Watercress grows in and by clear running water and tastes pleasantly sharp, like radish.

💡 Did you know? Watercress grows by clean streams and tastes peppery.

Common sorrel

Sorrel has arrow-shaped leaves and a refreshingly sour taste: popular in wild-herb soups.

💡 Did you know? The sour taste comes from oxalic acid.

Sweet woodruff

Woodruff grows in shady beech woods and releases its typical sweet aroma only as it wilts.

💡 Did you know? Sweet woodruff gives May punch its typical aroma.

Nasturtium

Nasturtium trails with round leaves and bright orange-red flowers: a pretty, edible garden ornament.

💡 Did you know? Nasturtium flowers and leaves are edible and peppery.

Salad burnet

Salad burnet has finely feathered leaves and tastes faintly of cucumber.

💡 Did you know? Salad burnet is part of Frankfurt's 'green sauce'.

Garden angelica

Angelica grows head-high with large globe-shaped flower clusters; its aromatic stems are candied.

💡 Did you know? Candied angelica stems are used as a sweet.

Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet grows in damp meadows and by streams, its cream-white plumes giving off a honey-sweet scent.

💡 Did you know? Meadowsweet smells of honey and once yielded a forerunner of aspirin.

Curry plant

Curry plant has silvery needle-like leaves and gives off an intense curry scent, for seasoning it is usually just cooked along.

💡 Did you know? Curry plant smells of curry but is unrelated to the spice.