QUICK EDIBLE PLANT GUIDE

Plants for milk and cream

Almond
Flax
Hazelnut
Hemp
Oats
Soya beans (soy: USA)

Plants for black tea
Tea shrub (Camillia sinensis)
Blackberry
Raspberry
Strawberry

 

Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Plants for herbal tea
Chamomile
Chickweed
Elderflower
Fennel
Mint
Nettle

Plants for 'coffee'
Carrot
Chicory
Dandelion
Jerusalem artichoke
Parsnip
Rye

Culinary and medicinal plants
Chamomile (German or Roman)
Common thyme
Garlic
Mint
Oregano
Parsley
Rosemary
Sage
Valerian
Yarrow

Plants for flavour & scent
Sweet dried fruit, ripe fresh fruit, stevia and the syrup of Jerusalem artichoke, sugar beet or tree sap e.g. pine, silver birch, sycamore, walnut
Salt/savoury celery, green purslane, lovage, salt bush, sea salt (home-made), seaweed and plants grown on the sea shore or by estuaries e.g. marsh samphire and rock samphire
Pepper alexanders, nasturtium, rocket, shepherd's purse
Chilli/hot/mustard chilli pepper, garlic mustard, horseradish, nasturtium
Garlic garlic, garlic mustard, ramsons
Bitter cat's ear, dandelion, hawkweed, plantain
Sour gooseberry, grape, plum, green tomatoes, ground cherry, iron cross plant
Aroma common thyme, lavender, mint, pine, rose, rosemary, sage, violets

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

Wild plants
Chickweed
Clover
Common sorrel
Daisy
Dandelion
Fat hen
Grass (most species including lawn)
Hawthorn
Nettle
Primrose
Sow thistle

Ornamental shrubs

These shrubs produce edible fruit. They are often sold in garden centres in the UK and can be found in many cultivated gardens in the British Isles.

Amelanchier (all species)

Creeping dogwood
Elaeagnus (some, probably all, species)
Fuchsia (all species)
Mahonia (some, probably all, species)
Pyracantha coccinea (the fruit not the seed)
Rosa (all species)
Sea Buckthorn

Annual vegetables

Annual vegetables have to be sown every year from seed.

Butternut squash
Celery
Courgette
Cress
Cucumber
Lettuce
Marrow
Pumpkin
Radish
Spring onions
Sweetcorn
Sweet pepper
Tomato

Perennial vegetables

Perennial vegetables do not need to be sown every year and will live for 2 years or more. Many will last indefinitely.

Asparagus
Chicory
Comfrey
Common sorrel
Jerusalem artichoke
Nettle
Nine star perennial broccoli
Perennial kale
Sea kale
Tree collards
Wild cabbage

Vegetables for the winter
These plants are very hardy and can be left growing until required even if the ground is frozen or covered in snow.

Brussels sprouts

Collards
Kale
Leek
Parsnip
Sea kale
Spinach
Swede
Turnip
Wild cabbage
Winter cabbage

Wild cabbage (Brassica oleracea)

Root vegetables
Beetroot
Carrot
Celeriac
Jerusalem artichoke
Parsnip
Potato
Radish
Salsify
Scorzonera
Skirret
Swede
Sweet potato
Turnip

Green leafy vegetables

Cabbage
Collards
Corn salad
Cress
Green purslane
Kale
Leaf beet
Lettuce
Mustard
Oriental vegetables
Sea vegetables
Spinach

Nuts and seeds
Almond
Beech
Flax
Hazel
Hemp
Pumpkin
Sweet chestnut
Walnut

Grain (cereals)
Barley
Oat
Quinoa
Rye
Wheat

Cultivated fruit
Apple
Blackberry
Cherry
Currant (black, red, white)
Dessert grape
Gojiberry
Gooseberry
Pear
Plum
Raspberry
Strawberry

Wild fruit
Blackberry
Bilberry
Crab apple
Dewberry
Rosehip (dog rose)
Elderberry
Haw (hawthorn)
Rowanberry (mountain ash)
Sea buckthorn
Service tree
Wild raspberry
Wild strawberry

Edible evergreen shrubs
Bamboo
Bilberry
Common thyme
Elaeagnus species
Holm oak
Olive
Rosemary
Sage
Salt bush
Strawberry tree
Yucca