Herb. No. 093 · Caryophyllaceae
Cool-season European annual, now a world weed of damp gardens.
Native · Europe
Native Also grownNow a garden plant worldwide
OpenGentleplant
Chickweed
Stellaria media
A tender star-flowered green for cooling itchy skin and a spring salad.
Chickweed is a European annual that loves cool, damp gardens. Traditional use is as a cooling poultice and a vitamin-y spring green. It is not a dramatic internal medicine. Identification: a single line of hairs along the stem, petals split so they look like ten.
Flavor
Corn-salad green, mild, slightly succulent. The garden’s mildest wild salad.
Parts used
Aerial parts
In favor
- Free if you garden
- Gentle
- A true salad
Against
- A weed in the wrong bed
- Hot weather ends the crop