Salad Burnet

Common Name: Salad Burnet

Latin Name: Sanguisorba minor

Ultimate Height: 1 metre

Flower Colour: Red

Type: Perennial

Soil: Clay, Loam, Sand, Chalk, Alkaline, Neutral PH

Flowering times: May-September

History, uses and notes:

Salad Burnet, as its name suggests, is a big favourite for those that like cooking with local, indigenous herbs. 

The young leaves of the Salad Burnet can be used in salads and sauces as a flavouring. The foliage is known to give out a cucumber-scent when crushed or walked on.

As well as providing food for humans Salad Burnet hosts the Grizzled Skipper as a breeding butterfly, which will lay its eggs on the plant. They flower in early summer.

Salad Burnet has also been known to heal wounds historically.

Description:

The leaves of Salad Burnet comprise up to 12 pairs of rounded, toothed leaflets, and form a rosette at the base of the flower stem. Its rounded flower heads are reddish and speckled.

Salad Burnet - Photo by Reinhold Möller

Salad Burnet flowering

Leaves of Salad Burnet