Plant Overview
A British native which is common in open woodland, hedgerows and dry grassland. Fine leaves and delicate stems and small umbrella-like clusters of white flowers between May and June.
The flowers are attractive to a range of insects, such as soldier beetles and hoverflies.
Easy to grow in the garden. Grow in a wildflower meadow or wildlife area or in a bed or container.
Height and Spread: 45cm x 35cm.
Common names: Pignut; Earth Chesnut; Groundnut
The tubers of Pignit taste a little like hazelnuts and digging for these 'nuts' was once a popular pastime among children. Unsurprisingly, it's also popular with pigs!
"They are something hot and dry in quality, under the dominion of Venus; they provoke lust exceedingly, and stir up those sports she is mistress of; the seed is excellent good to provoke urine; and so also is the root, but it does not perform it so forcibly as the seed doth. The root being dried and beaten into powder, and the powder being made into an electuary, is a singular remedy for spitting and pissing of blood, as the former chestnut was for coughs." Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1653)
Photo: Pignut (Conopodium majus) - flowers by Evelyn Simak, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons