Field Pepperwort

A remarkably cold, wet day of fieldwork for May. The first part of the day was spent helping a colleague record the flora of a disused tip, destined to be planted with trees and used as a community area. After yesterday's continuous rain, the long grass was sodden and my feet were soon wet. For the first hour or so there was no rain, but a fine mizzle set in that soon got everything else wet...

After lunch, consisting of an excellent sauasage roll from Navenby Bakery, we walked a bridleway close to his house, in a tetrad with no recent records and very few historic ones. I'm not quite sure this area had been ignored, as there were quite a few species of interest, including the largest population of Field Pepperwort I've ever seen on the margins of an arable field. This annual, or occasionally biennial, herb of open grassland and arable fields favours  sandy or gravelly soils but it may also found on roadsides and walls, in gardens and waste places. It's fairly local in South Lincolnshire, and quite surprisingly, hadn't been recorded from that 10 km square previously.

Apparently the young leaves can be eaten as greens, added raw to salads or boiled for ten minutes.The young fruits and seeds can be used as a spice, with a taste between black pepper and mustard. The leaves contain protein, vitamin A and vitamin C. I probably should have gathered some to bring home!