Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum

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Shining Cranesbill, Geranium lucidum

Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum

Mid spring is the season for Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum, an annual that appears early in the year and is in flower from April or early May.

Geranium lucidum has long, brittle, fleshy, hairless stems, which grow up to 35cm (14 inches) long. Its small pink flowers are spaced widely apart, so they complement rather than cover the plant’s distinctive five-lobed glossy green leaves. When the plant is in its prime these leaves really do shine (note 1).

Shining Crane’s-bill can continue flowering right through the summer but in the drier parts of the country it will be past its best by mid to late June. Its stems are often red and the whole plant can turn red as it ages, especially in a dry and sunny place.

Like other species of Geranium (part of the family Geraniaceae) each flower develops into a dry fruit (known as a schizocarp) that splits open (dehisces) to release five dry seeds (achenes) (note 2).

Thriving on Disturbance

Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum, is a plant that thrives on disturbance.

When I cycle south-west of Norwich I often head along Potash Lane in Hethel, past the Motor Works (note 3).

The northern part of the lane is blocked off to motor traffic and is lined by hedges. I have seen Bullfinches there on several occasions and it was a great place to pick blackberries and rosehips. Then last summer a Norfolk County Council Highways Team hacked back all the hedges and restored the road to its full width. Their work cut down the roses and brambles and thinned and shortened the hedges, removing the supply of fruit. It can’t have done the Bullfinches any good either.

Recovery will be slow but this spring, at least the verges are green again. The increase in light and disturbance to the ground has caused a population explosion of Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum.

Shining Cranesbill, Geranium lucidum

A population explosion of Shining Crane’s-bill, Geranium lucidum. Potash Lane, Hethel, 8th May 2023.

My first encounter with Geranium lucidum was at our previous house, where it grew in cracks in the concrete around our next door neighbour’s paths. It moved into our garden and must have hitched a lift in a plant pot to our current garden. Shining Crane’s-bill has now spread along the edges of the flower beds in the shadier part of the garden. It is doing well here – and elsewhere too.

Where the Shining Crane’s-bill grows

Geranium lucidum is native to the British Isles and occurs in most 10 kilometre squares in England and Wales. Its distribution is patchier in Ireland and its distribution thins out in Northern Scotland. The BSBI Plant Atlas records that there has been a marked increase in its abundance and 10km square range since the mid twentieth century and that “this has continued in the last two decades, particularly in south-eastern and eastern England, Scotland and Ireland” (note 4).

Shining Crane’s-bill’s natural home seems to be on calcareous soils: on rock outcrops, limestone pavements and scree. But it has adapted well to man-made habitats: gardens (sometimes deliberately introduced), roadsides, on and at the base of mortared walls, in churchyards, on waste ground and on railway ballast. Nowadays it is spreading into places with more acid soils too, such as Cheshire, where it grows on very acid Cheshire sandstone.

Outside the British Isles, Geranium lucidum is native to many European countries, including Scandinavia and Southern Europe, eastwards into Ukraine and southern Russia but excluding the Netherlands and Poland. Its range continues eastwards through Turkey, Iran and Iraq into Asia as far east as India and down into North Africa (Morocco, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia).

Geranium lucidum was introduced into the United States as a garden plant and now occurs in the states of California, Oregon and Washington. It has also been introduced to Canada (Vancouver Island in British Columbia; detected in 1982) and Australia and New Zealand.

Spreading to America

Shining Crane’s-bill was first detected growing wild in the United States in 1971. Its powers of dispersal are impressive.

In Oregon, it is well established in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where the climate suits it well and it has been able to invade oak woodlands and open grasslands. Other hotspots include similar habitats and forest clearings in the Portland area, northern California, Bayview State Park in Skagit County, Washington and in southwest Washington.

Shining Crane’s-bill can rapidly dominate the areas it colonises to the exclusion of native herbaceous species. Seeds are scattered explosively and even in still air the seeds can travel up to six metres (20 feet). Humans can help dispersal too: the plant spread from Oregon to Washington in contaminated nursery plants and may also be able to spread as a contaminant of agricultural seed. Seeds persist in the seed bank for more than a year. Geranium lucidum can sometimes be found growing with its relation Herb Robert (known in North America as Roberts Geranium), Geranium robertianum, also introduced from Europe.

Geranium lucidum infestation

An infestation of Geranium lucidum in White Oak woodland at Mt. Pisgah in Oregon, United States. Image: Bruce Newhouse, Bugwood.org.

There is considerable potential for Geranium lucidum to spread further in the United States. The USDA report “Weed Risk Assessment for Geranium lucidum L. (Geraniaceae) – Shining cranesbill” (2013) estimates that about 54 percent of the United States and 4 percent of Canada is suitable for the establishment of Geranium lucidum. At the time of the report it was “currently not a direct threat to threatened and endangered species [but] it could make habitat restoration for rare species difficult”. According to the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Shining Crane’s-bill “[utilises] the abundance of early spring moisture… quickly establishes, dominating sites by smothering other early spring wildflowers and the seedlings of perennial plants. As soils dry, few other plants are able to establish through the receding weed canopy“.

Shining Crane’s-bill is now classed as a noxious weed in parts of the United States, including King County in Washington state. It is prohibited to transport, buy, sell, offer for sale, or to distribute plants or plant parts, seeds in packets, blends or “wildflower mixes” of this species, into or within the state of Washington.

The King County Noxious Weeds website lists ways to control Geranium lucidum. Shoes and vehicles should be cleaned after visiting infested areas and new plantings should be checked, in case the plant has hitchhiked from a nursery. Small patches of Geranium lucidum can be weeded by hand (removing the plant material, rather than composting it) and larger patches by mulching or the use of herbicides.

Don’t Panic!

In its native range Geranium lucidum is more adapted to its environment and is unlikely to be a problem.

If you find Shining Crane’s-bill to be a nuisance in the garden, it is easily pulled up by hand, the earlier in the season the better if you don’t want it to set seed.

I remove some of my plants when they’re growing in the wrong place, but leave most of it to grow.

Edibility

Not much seems to eat Shining Crane’s-bill. The Plants For A Future website says that Geraniums “are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer or rabbits” and in my garden I find them slug- and snail-proof too.

The plant has no known edible uses for humans. Bug Woman (whose excellent website I found while researching Shining Crane’s-bill) couldn’t find a single recipe and nor can I. Medicinally, it is diuretic and astringent (note 5).

According to the Bug Woman – Adventures In London website Shining Crane’s-bill is used as a foodplant by The Annulet moth (Charissa obscurata), although not exclusively, as the UK Moths website says that the “larvae feed on Heather (Calluna) as well as a range of herbaceous plants“. (The moth is no longer found in Norfolk.)

The caterpillars of the Brown Argus butterfly are becoming more catholic in their tastes. The butterfly used to be restricted to chalk grassland where the caterpillars used Common Rock-rose as a foodplant. In the 1990s, however, the butterfly spread into grasslands away from chalk and started using crane’s-bills (note 6).

Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill (Geranium molle) and Common Stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium) are now used as food plants. The Butterfly Conservation website refers to recent reports of egg-laying on Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill (G. dissectum), Meadow Crane’s-bill (G. pratense), and Hedgerow Crane’s-bill (G. pyrenaicum). Perhaps the Brown Argus has started to use Shining Crane’s-bill too, as suggested by the Wildflower Finder website.

Solitary bees frequently take nectar on species of Geranium in the garden and probably use Shining Crane’s-bill in the wild. I’ll have to keep a look-out. I’ve also seen Wood White butterflies nectaring on Herb Robert; why not Shining Cranesbill too?

Other Crane’s-bills Are Available

There are several other wild species of Geranium in flower at the moment. We have Herb Robert, Geranium robertianum and Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill, Geranium molle in our garden and I found Cut-leaved Crane’s-bill, Geranium dissectum and Hedgerow Crane’s-bill, Geranium pyrenaicum on my recent bike ride.

I recommend the Wild Flower Society’s at-a-glance guide and, as ever, the Wildflower Finder website and Mike Crewe’s Flora of East Anglia website (which has separate pages for smaller and larger crane’s-bills).

I have already written about some other species of Geranium on this blog: Bloody Crane’s-bill, Geranium sanguineum and blue-flowered garden species such as Purple Crane’s-bill, Geranium x magnificum.

I’ve used the spelling ‘crane’s-bill’ but some writers use the spelling ‘cranesbill’, which is what I learnt from my first flower book, Keble Martin’s Concise British Flora in Colour.

Dove's-foot Cranesbill, Geranium molle

A carpet of Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill, Geranium molle. New Buckenham, 8th May 2023.

Notes

Note 1 – Geranium lucidum is sometimes known as Shiny Crane’s-bill or Shiny Geranium in the United States.

Lucidum is a form of the Latin adjective lucidus, meaning “clear, bright, shining, full of light”.

The genus name is derived from the Greek géranos or geranós meaning crane, because of resemblance of the fruit capsule to a crane’s head and bill.

Note 2 – The family Geraniaceae is described on pages 364 – 376 of the “New Flora of the British Isles“ by Clive Stace (Fourth Edition, 2019). Stace describes 30 species of Geranium. The family also includes Stork’s-bills (genus Erodium) and a couple of naturalised species of Geranium (genus Pelargonium).

Note 3 – This is where they build Lotus cars.

Note 4 -“Distinguishing between native and alien occurrences is now impossible, so… all records are mapped as if native.”

Note 5 – Its American relative, Geranium carolinianum, apparently tastes bitter but is edible raw or cooked and has medicinal uses as an astringent, salve and styptic and gargle for sore throats.

Note 6 – See “The Butterflies of Britain & Ireland” by Jeremy Thomas and Richard Lewington (British Wildlife Publishing, 2014), page 127.

Wild Daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus

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Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, at Hethel church, Norfolk. 27th March 2023.

“I wandered lonely as a cloud…“

Well, actually, I didn’t wander. I was on a bike ride south-west of Norwich in late March. I had lunch at Great Moulton church and stopped off at Hethel church on my way home.

Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, were growing in both churchyards and they were at their very peak.

Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, at Hethel church, Norfolk. 27th March 2023.

I love Daffodils. They’re one of the cheeriest and most definitive signs of spring, mainly flowering in mid to late March in Norfolk but in April further north.

Even the smallest garden usually has some daffodils. There are plenty to choose from: 36 species of Narcissus worldwide and more than 26,000 cultivated varieties.

Stace has just over six pages on Narcissus and lists 26 species and hybrids that grow in the wild in the British Isles, nearly all escapes from cultivation (note 1).

My least favourite are the double-flowered varieties (in Division 4), which I find rather ugly, although even these look pretty from a distance. But Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, are gorgeous and some of the very best Narcissus in form and colour. They are especially lovely in a wild setting but also make good garden flowers. Some have been planted in Norwich’s Heigham Park, a few minutes walk from where I live, in grass under trees by the park entrance.

The Wild Daffodil is a bit shorter than many of the garden cultivars (40 – 60cm tall) and has narrow, grey-green leaves. The flowers are two-tone, with pale yellow ‘petals’ (actually tepals  – undifferentiated petals and sepals) surrounding a darker yellow trumpet (the corona).

Narcissus pseudonarcissus is a perennial plant. Its leaves die back after flowering and spends the summer, autumn and early winter below ground, as a bulb. Over time, each bulb produces offsets (young bulbs), and clumps of daffodils form.

Our native daffodil

Narcissus pseudonarcissus is native to Britain and the Channel Isles but in Ireland it is a neophyte (a plant introduced after 1492). The 2020 Plant Atlas shows its current distribution. As a wild flower it is in decline but it has been planted in many places, so that “The extent of its native range in our area is probably now intractable given the extent of planting“. The 2020 Plant Atlas suggests there has been “some increase in alien occurrences in widely scattered parts of both Britain and Ireland whilst there may have been some recent losses of native populations, especially around the fringes of core areas in south-western England, the West Midlands and north-western England“.

Nowadays the main places to see Wild Daffodils in the wild are in the south-west (Devon, Somerset and Gloucestershire), Cumbria, the Black Mountains in Wales and the counties along the Welsh border.

The Woodland Trust website lists three of its woods with good populations: Letah Wood in Northumberland, Everdon Stubbs in Northamptonshire and Oldmoor Wood in Nottinghamshire.

The area around the Gloucestershire villages of Dymock, Preston, Kempley and Oxenhall is known as the “golden triangle” because of its Wild Daffodils and Daffodil Weekends and Daffodil Teas are held there in mid March. The area was served by “The Daffodil Line” (the Ledbury and Gloucester Railway) between 1885 and 1964 and in spring there were Sunday excursions to see Wild Daffodils. It is sad that the railway has gone but good to see that the bus service for the area is still known as the Daffodil Line.

Outside the British Isles, Narcissus pseudonarcissus is a native of Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. It has been introduced into other countries in eastern Europe, North America and Australia.

“All the taverns may be seen decked out with this flower”

In 1581 Charles de l’Ecluse noted that the Wild Daffodil “grows in such profusion in the meadows close to London that… in Cheapside in March the country women offer the blossoms in great abundance for sale, and all the taverns may be seen decked out with this flower” (note 2). 

John Gerard (c1545 – 1612) thought that Wild Daffodils grew in “almost euery where through England” and Richard Mabey notes that the Wild Daffodil was “one of the most widespread, common (and commonly picked) spring flowers until the middle of the nineteenth century” when numbers declined in much of central and eastern England in particular (note 2).

Wild Daffodil’s natural habitat is in ash and oak woodlands, bracken stands on scrubby banks and in old pastures (especially damp meadows). Habitat loss was a major factor in the plant’s decline. Picking removes the flowers but wouldn’t otherwise harm the Wild Daffodils. Digging up bulbs is another matter.

Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Wild Daffodils, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, at Great Moulton church. 27th March 2023.

The Wild Daffodils in Hethel and Great Moulton churchyards will have been planted.

The Flora of Norfolk (1999) says that Narcissus pseudonarcissus is “rare as a true native, but also occurring as an introduction especially in churchyards”. An earlier Flora (Petch and Swann 1968) says that “the truly wild daffodil is rare in Norfolk; the only recent records are from the Broads district… and at meadows at Hethel, where it has been known for many years”. A 1975 supplement to this flora tells us that Benjamin Stillingfleet recorded Wild Daffodils in flower at Stratton Strawless on April 1st 1785 (note 3).

Wild Daffodils have a number of English names, including Lent Lily, Easter Lily and Lenten Lily (because of the time of flowering), Daffys and Daffydowndilly.

The Welsh name is Cenhinen Bedr (Cennin Pedr), which translates as ‘Peter’s Leek’. A subspecies of the Wild Daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp. obvallaris, is known as the Tenby Daffodil. Its flowers are a uniform darker yellow and it is mainly confined to South-west Wales. Daffodils (especially the Tenby Daffodil) have been adopted as the national flower of Wales and are associated with St. David’s Day (1st March).

The scientific name, Narcissus, comes from the Greek myth about the young man who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, becoming so obsessed that he fell in and drowned.

Admire but don’t eat…

Narcissus pseudonarcissus is a member of the family Amaryllidaceae. I’ve previously written about its relatives Three-cornered and Few-flowered Garlic (April 2021), Society Garlic (August 2015) and Babington’s Leek (January 2012), all of which are edible. But daffodils are poisonous – as is the related Snowdrop (which I wrote about in February 2012).

Daffodils contain the toxic alkaloids lycorine, galanthamine (also spelt galantamine), homolycorine, and tazettine and the toxic glycoside scillain (scillitoxin) (note 4).

Daffodil bulbs have sometimes been mistaken for onions. This usually results from someone not paying enough attention, for daffodil bulbs don’t smell of onions. (It’s important to use all your senses when identifying plants!)

Visitors to The Poison Garden in Alnwick shared their daffodil poisoning stories with John Robertson. One person poisoned herself and her dinner party guests; she didn’t bother to switch on her garage lights and accidentally grabbed some daffodil bulbs instead of onions. An au pair used daffodil bulbs by mistake when preparing a family meal. A couple were accidentally poisoned by an aged aunt – the woman suffered from nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea for two days after eating half a bulb but the man ate a whole bulb and was sick after ten minutes and recovered fully (note 5).

Not all poisoning is accidental: a dentistry student was convinced he was going to fail his exam, which would have forced him to end his studies. He deliberately ate a daffodil bulb before the exam and began vomiting after half an hour. He left the examination room and was allowed to resit the exam at a later date when he was better prepared (note 5).

Whether they are eaten raw or cooked, symptoms of Narcissus poisoning include dizziness, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea shortly after consumption. Trembling, convulsions and paralysis can occur in more severe cases (note 6).

The stems or leaves are sometimes mistaken for various types of Allium. Eating just a few daffodil leaves can cause vomiting, but complete recovery normally occurs within a few hours (note 6).

In 2015 Public Health England wrote to major supermarkets to warn that the flowers could be confused with onions or Chinese vegetables, and consumption of them was an “emerging risk”. It was suggested that daffodils should be kept separate from fruit and vegetable aisles. The warning was repeated this February by the Botanist James Wong.

Daffodil bulbs also contain oxalates (like Cuckoo Pint), which are like microscopic needles, causing severe burning and irritation of the lips, tongue, and throat when swallowed. To quote James Wong: “Daffodils are filled with microscopic crystals, so biting into one is like swallowing a box of tiny needles. Properly nasty”.

Picking daffodils regularly in large quantities can cause contact dermatitis from the sap. One Twitter user reported “I used to work on daffodil farms down in Cornwall harvesting both the flowers and the bulbs. I have scars on my hands from sap seeping around the rubber gloves that we had to wear“.

Dogs and cats that drink the water from a vase of daffodils can show mild symptoms of poisoning. Non-human deaths include cattle fed on daffodil bulbs (in the Netherlands in the Second World War when food was very scarce) and a tortoise that ate a few leaves, became constipated and listless and died after 11 days (note 6).

There is increasing interest in some of the compounds found in daffodils for their cytotoxic, antibacterial and antifungal properties and action as enzyme inhibitors (note 7). Galanthamine is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and shows promise in alleviating the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

Notes

Note 1 – The genus Narcissus is described on pages 953 – 959 of the “New Flora of the British Isles“ by Clive Stace (Fourth Edition, 2019).

The genus Narcissus can be divided into 12 divisions depending on flower shape, colour and number of flowers on a stem. A thirteenth division is used for “Daffodils distinguished solely by botanical name”, which includes species of Narcissus such as the Wild Daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus. The American Daffodil Society website has some good pictures of flowers in the various sections.

Note 2 – All this information comes from pages 425 – 433 of Richard Mabey’s “Flora Britannica” (Sinclair-Stevenson, 1996).

Charles de l’Ecluse was a Belgian Botanist, better known as Carolus Clusius, (1526 – 1609).

Note 3 – Gillian Beckett, Alec Bull and Robin Stevenson, “A Flora of Norfolk”.  Privately published, 1999. C.P. Petch and E.L. Swann, “Flora of Norfolk” Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, 1968.
E.L. Swann, “Supplement to the Flora of Norfolk”, F. Crowe & Sons Ltd, Norwich, 1975.

Note 4 – From pages 20 – 21 of “Poisonous Plants and Fungi – An Illustrated Guide” by Marion Cooper and Anthony Johnson, HMSO, 1994 and Y. R. Boshra, J. R. Fahim, A. N. E. Hamed and S. Y. Desoukey (2022), “Phytochemical and biological attributes of Narcissus pseudonarcissus L. (Amaryllidaceae): A review“, South African Journal of Botany, Vol. 146, pages 437-458.

Note 5 – John Robertson (2010), “‘Is That Cat Dead?’ and other questions about poison plants”. Book Guild Publishing, Sussex, England.

Note 6 – Pages 20 – 21 of “Poisonous Plants and Fungi – An Illustrated Guide” by Marion Cooper and Anthony Johnson, HMSO, 1994.

Note 7 – Two recent examples are:

J. J. Nair and J. Van Staden (2021), “The plant family Amaryllidaceae as a source of cytotoxic homolycorine alkaloid principles“, South African Journal of Botany, Vol. 136, pages 157-174.

A. Lubbe, B. Pomahacová, Y.H. Choi and R. Verpoorte (2010), “Analysis of metabolic variation and galanthamine content in Narcissus bulbs by by 1H NMR“. Phytochem. Anal., Vol. 21: pages 66-72.

Common Chickweed, Stellaria media

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Common Chickweed, Stellaria media

Common Chickweed, Stellaria media

Some plants grow tall or have large showy flowers but others are more subtle. Common Chickweed falls in the latter category.

Common Chickweed, Stellaria media, is a lowly and unspectacular annual plant but it is probably growing near where you live and it is likely to be in flower at the moment.

Starry Flowers

Common Chickweed is well worth a closer look. Seen close up, the starry white flowers, growing against a background of pale green leaves, are rather beautiful. Each  flower has five bifid petals (i.e. split into two), making it look like there are ten. Behind the petals are five green sepals. Towards the centre of the flower are the anthers (which can vary in number from three to as many as eight) and the pistil at the centre (note 1).

Stellaria media is a member of the Pink family, the Caryophyllaceae, along with other plants that I’ve already written about (Spanish Catchfly, Spring Sandwort and Small-flowered Catchfly) and others I haven’t yet, such as campions (Silene and Lychnis) and carnations / pinks (Dianthus).

Chickweed flower

A single Common Chickweed flower. Five sepals, five bifid petals and five stamens (though there can be as few as three and as many as eight) . There is an unopened flower bud to the right of the photograph.

In the last fortnight I’ve seen Common Chickweed all over the place on disturbed, open ground: in our garden, on the allotment and, while on walks and bike rides in the Norfolk countryside, on field edges and road verges.

Almost Ubiquitous

This isn’t just true for Norfolk, for Stellaria media is found in almost every 10km square throughout the British Isles. It finds a home in a wide range of disturbed and artificial habitats. These include gardens and arable fields, farmyards, roadsides, on waste ground, walls and brownfield sites, and on refuse tips. Common Chickweed also grows on shingle banks and where farm animals and deer have poached the soil.

Stellaria media is a native in the British Isles and throughout Europe and much of Asia and North Africa. It has been introduced into much of North America, Central and South America, many southern African countries, New Zealand, New Guinea and New Caledonia. In the tropics Stellaria media is usually confined to higher altitudes, as in Colombia, where it is one of the most aggressive weeds at 2600 metres above sea level.

It is hardly surprising that such a common plant as Common Chickweed is known a variety of names. English, Scottish and Irish names include: Star-of-Bethlehem, Chickenweed, Chickenwort, Chuckenwort, Craches, Flewort, Hen’s Inheritance, Maruns, Tongue Grass, White Bird’s-eye, Winterweed, Chick Wittles, Cluckenweed, Mischievous Jack, Murren, and Skirt Buttons.

Stellaria is derived from the word “stella” meaning “star”(because of the shape of the flowers) and media is Latin for “between”, “intermediate”, or “mid-sized”.

Lifecycle

Common Chickweed can flower in any month of the year but here in East Anglia the peak of flowering is from March to June. Seeds often germinate in autumn and plants over-winter. Stellaria media tolerates harsh winters and can photosynthesise and grow even at temperatures below 5 degrees Celsius. It will produce flowers and seeds even in the coldest months and we often see the earliest flowers in early January on a New Year’s Plant Hunt in our local cemetery. The flowers may only open for one day, to be pollinated by insects, or stay closed and self-pollinate (this is known as cleistogamy). The seeds also germinate in spring and the plants grow rapidly as the weather warms and the amount of daylight increases, producing flowers and seeds in as little as five weeks from germination.

Common Chickweed often grows with other annuals with a similar growth cycles, such as Red Deadnettles, which I have already written about.

Common Chickweed (Stellaria media) with Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) on the allotment.

Stellaria media is a very successful plant and for that reason not everyone likes it. Writing in the early 1970s in “Food For Free” Richard Mabey says “Chickweed must, after bindweed, be the gardener’s most hated weed. Tons of it are incinerated every year” (note 2).

Common Chickweed doesn’t have deep, spreading roots like the bindweeds but it certainly other weedy characteristics: fast growth and a high reproductive rate. A single plant can produce 2,000 to 13,000 seeds and these are transported to other sites on boots, hooves and birds’ feet. Various birds and mammals also eat and excrete the seeds.

Any seeds that don’t germinate straightaway enter the seed bank in the soil and can remain viable for many years. In an American study in the first half of the twentieth century, 22% of seeds were still capable of germinating after nine years and some sources even claim they can remain viable for up to 60 years. Common Chickweed can have up to five generations in a year, if the summer isn’t too hot and dry.  It dies back in hot summers, where it benefits from a bit of shade. It doesn’t like acid soils (below pH 5.0) and thrives where soil nitrogen levels are high and levels of phosphates and lime are low.

Common Chickweed can compete with arable crops such as winter Oilseed Rape and Sugar Beet. Fortunately it has shallow roots (unlike bindweed) and in a garden or on the allotment it is easy to remove using a hand fork. However, it forms a mat of vegetation and this allows it to compete with smaller plants and I find that the tangle of stems becomes difficult to remove without pulling up small vegetable seedlings at the same time. There’s also some evidence that the plant produces chemicals to inhibit the germination of its competitors. (Note 3).

But timing is everything. During the growing season, I mainly treat Common Chickweed as a weed. However, in late autumn and winter it becomes a very useful plant. Growing on bare soil it acts as a green manure crop, protecting the soil surface from winter rains and snow and reducing soil compaction and nutrient loss. I dig it and other annual “weeds” into the soil in early spring and they then act as a soil improver, adding organic matter. The advantage over sown green manure crops is that this doesn’t cost a penny (note 4).

Stellaria media may also be useful in the war on other unwanted plants: Garden Organic’s “The biology and non-chemical control of Common chickweed (Stellaria media L.)” reports that a ground cover of Common Chickweed was used to suppress Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) in vineyards.

Food For Free

One way of dealing with a surfeit of Common Chickweed is to eat it.

Common Chickweed forms an important part of the diet of several farmland birds including Grey Partridge, Linnet, Tree Sparrow, Bullfinch and Reed Bunting. It is the foodplant of several species of moth, including the Yellow Shell.

As the name suggests, Common Chickweed can be used to feed hens and when I was a child in Scotland we raised frog tadpoles on a regular supply of fresh Common Chickweed leaves (note 5).

Humans can eat Common Chickweed too. Since Common Chickweed is abundant and fast growing it is surely the ultimate in sustainable foods.

Fresh leaves make a pleasant and nutritious addition to a salad. The Wild Food UK website says the taste is “usually compared to lettuce but we think it has a delicate taste of its own.” I pick whole tops, because removing individual leaves is fiddly. I think the taste is pleasant, especially in a mixed salad. In “The Edible City” John Rensten gives a recipe for “A seasonal chickweed salad with very early spring leaves and flowers”. He adds a vinaigrette dressing to leaves of Common Chickweed, Ox-eye Daisy, Hairy Bittercress, Crow Garlic and Fennel, and Primrose flowers (note 6).

I think I can detect a slight soapiness to Common Chickweed leaves, but possibly only because I know that the plants contain mildly toxic saponins (note 7).

Saponins are broken down by thorough cooking. I haven’t tried cooking Common Chickweed but according to the Plants For A Future website “the cooked leaves can scarcely be distinguished from spring spinach“, which is praise indeed. Richard Mabey suggests cooking sprigs of Common Chickweed with butter, seasoning and chopped onions. “Simmer gently for about ten minutes, turning all the time. Finish off with a dash of lemon juice or a sprinkling of grated nutmeg”. This is apparently very good with rich meat (note 2). Common Chickweed is also one of the ingredients in the Japanese Festival of Seven Herbs (Nanakusa-no-sekku) .

Stellaria media seeds contain 17.8% protein and 5.9% fat and can be ground to a powder and added to bread or soups, but collecting them is only for those with time, patience and manual dexterity.

For safety’s sake, avoid eating very large quantities of Common Chickweed (note 7) and don’t pick it from the edges of paths (because of dogs) or roads (because of pollution from traffic). I would also avoid arable fields away from organic farms (pesticide pollution).

Medicine too…

Common Chickweed has a number of herbal uses. It can be used in the external treatment of any kind of itching skin condition, as a cream or infusion in bath water. I tried it several years ago when I had eczema on my hands and it was better than most of the other creams I tried (although eventually a cream using colloidal oatmeal proved to be the answer).

Common Chickweed has also been used to make an eyewash and has been taken internally to treat chest complaints and aid digestion – though it should not be taken by pregnant women or in too large a quantity (note 7).

Further Reading – and pictures

If you want to know more about Common Chickweed, I thoroughly recommend “Plant of the Week, 6th February 2023-Common Chickweed, Stellaria media (L.) Vill.” on the Botany In Scotland blog. It also includes some great pictures of Common Chickweed, as does the wonderful Wild Flower Finder website.

Notes

Note 1 – See Mike Crewe’s Flora of East Anglia website for some good comparison photographs of different species of Stellaria (Chickweeds and Stitchworts) in our region.

The genus is described on pages 488 – 489 of the “New Flora of the British Isles“ by Clive Stace (Fourth Edition, 2019). There are nine species in the British Isles. Stellaria media has 3 – 5 (8) stamens, whereas its close relatives Stellaria pallida has 1 – 2 (3) stamens and Stellaria neglecta has ten. Seed size is another useful characteristic for separating these three species.

Stellaria pallida (Lesser Chickweed) is a small and short-lived annual, with sickly-looking yellow foliage. It grows on bare sandy soils on coastal dunes and inland. Stellaria neglecta (Greater Chickweed) is an annual or perennial. It usually grows more upright and is larger than Stellaria media and prefers shady, damp places. Stellaria media is normally an annual but can sometimes be a short-lived perennial.

There are also some larger, prettier species, such as Stellaria holostea (Greater Stitchwort), which brightens up hedgerows and woodlands in May with its larger white flowers. It is a favourite of mine – I must write about it some day.

Note 2 – “Food For Free” by Richard Mabey (Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1972). The classic guide to foraging – and still in print. (My copy is my Mum’s 1975 Fontana paperback edition.) Hopefully today’s gardeners are composting it rather than incinerating it: green plant material gives off lots of unpleasant smoke when burnt.

Note 3 – For further reading on Common Chickweed as a weed, see “Plant of the Week, 6th February 2023-Common Chickweed, Stellaria media (L.) Vill.“, “Distribution and biology of common chickweed in the UK” and “The biology and non-chemical control of Common chickweed (Stellaria media L.)“.

Note 4 – Deep digging isn’t required as long as you cover the Common Chickweed plants with a layer of soil. If you don’t, they’ll keep on growing if they’ve only been partly buried. Fragments of stem can sometimes root too.

I do buy green manure seeds as well: Grazing Rye, Winter Tares and Fodder Beans do well on my allotment.

I leave patches of Red Deadnettles for spring bees. And Common Chickweed around the edges of the plot, where it isn’t causing a problem: after all, I’m not a monster.

Note 5 – Common Chickweed worked until the tadpoles developed back legs and become carnivorous. The Fishkeeping World article “What do Tadpoles Eat: In the Wild and as Pets” gives a much wider range of foods.

Note 6 – Page 35 in “The Edible City: A Year of Wild Food” by John Rensten (Boxtree, 2016).

Note 7 – Saponins in Common Chickweed are slightly toxic but are very poorly absorbed by the body and mainly pass through the gut without causing harm. An excess dose of Common Chickweed can cause diarrhoea and vomiting but you would have to eat a very large quantity to cause harm (as much as your own body weight). The Plants For A Future website warns women not to consume plants containing saponins during pregnancy or during breastfeeding.

The roots of Common Chickweed’s relative Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, contain up to 20% saponins, leading to the plant’s use as a gentle soap.