Hairy Bittercress (with an oak leaf for scale) in Earlham Cemetery, Norwich

One of the first edible plants you’ll find at the beginning of the year is Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta.

Hairy Bittercress is a small, short lived member of the cabbage family, Brassicaceae. It is related to Lady’s Smock (Cuckoo Flower, Cardamine pratensis) and resembles  a much smaller and more subtle version with white rather than pale pink flowers. At this time of year it consists of a basal rosette of stalked, pinnate leaflets, then in spring a flowering stem arises from the centre of the rosette and bears the flowers.

The flowers are followed by thin fruit capsules known as siliquae (singular siliqua), which split open and fling the seeds some distance from the parent plant. For this reason, Hairy Bittercress can be quite invasive, particularly in damp, recently disturbed soil. If you buy a pot-grown plant from a nursery or garden centre you may find it comes with a free gift, in the form of a Hairy Bittercress plant growing on the surface of the compost. It grows in my back garden in shady borders and in some of my plant pots.

But don’t despair – Hairy Bittercress is rather good to eat, so you may be able to browse it into submission. Promising recipes include Hairy Bittercress and Roasted Beetroot Salad, Hairy Bittercress with Smoked Trout and various others. Or you can nibble on the leaves while on a walk or out gardening, if you’re sure the area it’s growing in is dog free. The leaves are slightly hot (a bit like Watercress or Land Cress) and slightly bitter. They go well with Chickweed (Stellaria media), another edible weed that can be used in salads.