Ground Elder (Aegopodium podagraria)

Edibility:Edible Good

Eating notes: Young leaves can be eaten raw in salads. The Leaves can also be wilted like a spinach or even blended into soups.

Ground Elder is often considered a pernicious weed - very hard to eradicate. It spreads freely via underground rhizomes. It gets its name from the similarity of its leaves and flowers to those of the Elder. The name goutweed, as you might guess, comes from its past medicinal use as a treatment for gout.

Height: 30-80cm

Leaves: Leaf stems have 3 groups of 3 leaflets. Each leaflet if oval/spear-shaped with an irregular serrated edge.

Flowers: Flower spike stand above the dense low foliage. Each flower head is dense dome of tiny white 5-petalled flowers.

Other: Tends to grow in large dense clumps.

Look-a-likes: The flowers clearly show this to be a member of the umbellifers, and while there are many poisonous members of this family, non share the unusual leaf structure.