CHICKWEED
specifically common chickweed, (Stellaria media)
also this is me
because i figure i should post about it at least once yknow
originally from europe, but its spread all over the world, especially north america and asia. it likes pretty cool climates, so in more temperate places it pops in at the start of autumn and leaves by spring.
How to identify:
they have egg-shaped leaves that end in a point and grow in pairs opposite each other on the stem. youll usually find it sprawled on the ground, but large clumps of chickweed can grow vertically with some support. stems have a single line of hair running down the entire length.
their flowers are pretty distinctive! 5 large white petals, each a stretched out heart-kinda shape that makes it look like 10 petals. they have 5 sepals in a star shape that are covered in tiny hairs.
How to eat:
the entire chickweed plant is edible!!! leaves, stem, flower, you name it. (while the stem is edible, it gets pretty fibrous, so you might only want to eat the top parts of the stem that are softer)
eat it raw in salads and sandwiches as a spinach substitute, or cook it in soups and stews!
Trivia:
theres two common chickweed lookalikes! mouse-ear chickweed is pretty easy to distinguish- while the flowers look the same, the leaves and stem are coated with hairs! (its also edible, but probably less pleasant to eat)
more importantly though, scarlet pimpernel also looks quite like chickweed and IS poisonous- they have reddish orange flowers, so if its in bloom thats not a problem, but look out for square, hairless stems and small black dots on the undersides of the leaves. that right therell make you feel not so good.
the latin name, stellaria media, comes from stellar, or star (because of the flower petals), and media, or medium/intermediate
