Attractive potherb in England and France. In Tuscany, this wild plant is a nutritious ingredient to many salads or garnish. The succulent, crunchy leaves add texture to salads and are best when harvested young and tastes similar to parsley, spinach or kale, but sweeter and nuttier. The flavor is best before the plant begins to flower. The flowers draw up the essential oils or flavor, from the leaves. But the flowers themselves also are great in salads. It was used then as a medicinal plant, thought to relieve fevers and protect against a host of other maladies. It was also popular in fancy jellies. Produces a dense basal rosette of narrow lance-shaped leaves 6-10”. Soaked seeds become gelatinous for use as a laxative. Also known as Buck’s Horn Plantain, Buckhorn, Herba Stella and Minutina. Tags: Color: Green, Season: Spring Fall Winter, Seed: Safe Seed Pledge.
Native to Eurasia and North Africa. The plant’s name is derived from the shape of its leaves: narrow, spiky and antler-like. Buckshorn plantain grows wild along the pebbly coastline of Europe and in widely scattered areas of the Mediterranean. It thrives in cool, rainy weather,and because of its seaside origin, this plantain is adapted to saline soils, allowing it to grow where many other plants can’t. Grown in the United States since at least Colonial times. Delicious
buckhorn recipes.