Herb. No. 238 · Violaceae
European wild pansy; every cottage catalog has a named strain.
Native · Europe
Native Also grown
LegalGentleplant
Heartsease
Viola tricolor
Garden flowersKitchenFlowersHarvestCompanionsLookalikes
A small three-colored face for salad, sugar, and a cool-season edge that does not mind sitting with lettuce.
Heartsease is the wild pansy — yellow, purple, and white on one face. Garden pansies (Viola × wittrockiana) are the same kitchen use: petals, not a medicine chest. The plant likes cool weather, self-sows, and fills the gap between spinach and the first tomato. Folklore called it heartsease for melancholy, which is a name, not a protocol. Eat the flower. Leave the root.
Flavor
Mild, lettuce-green, a faint wintergreen in some types.
Parts used
Flower · Young leaf
Helpful
- Edible face
- Self-sows in a kind bed
- Likes the same cool soil as lettuce
Cautions
- Heat knocks it back
- Not a medicine
- Slugs like it too