Description
Salad burnet is an unassuming herb that deserves a place in any garden, as it stays fresh and provides edible greens throughout the year. Cultivated for over 2000 years, salad burnet is a tasty herb that is a member of the Rosaceae (Rose) family. Native to Europe, salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) grows naturally from Scandinavia across the continent to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, where it is called pimpernelle.
An evergreen perennial growing to a height of approximately 40-60cm, salad burnet grows in a rosette-forming clump with lovely lacy, fern-like foliage. The leaves are made up of pairs of mid-green, toothed leaflets. From the second year onwards, the plant produces flowering stems from spring and throughout summer, which rise from the basal rosette.
The flowers are unusual, being green and reddish-brown and forming a clumped, globular head. The flower head contains both male and female flowers with the female flowers located towards the top and the creamy male flowers located towards the base, near the stem. The flowers are very attractive to bees.
The generic name Sanguisorba comes from the Latin ‘sanguis’, meaning blood, and ‘sorbere’, meaning to staunch, so named due to the herb’s value for stopping bleeding, both internally and externally. The name relates to its ancient medicinal use, which was to staunch wounds.
Culinary use
As the name suggests, salad burnet is a wonderful salad herb. The leaves have a lovely cucumber flavour with a hint of nuttiness. If you are one of those people that have trouble digesting cucumber, salad burnet will allow you to get the flavour without the negative consequences.
Not only do the leaves have a lovely fresh flavour, but they are also good for you as they contain vitamins A, B and C, calcium, potassium, iron, and magnesium. The leaves are best harvested when young as the older leaves can have a slightly bitter taste.
Salad burnet adds a cool, fresh flavour to salads and summer drinks. It can be added to vinegar, either by itself or with other herbs to make a delicious herb vinegar to add to sauces and dressings. Leaves can also be mixed into an herb butter, or into spreading cheese, chopped, and sprinkled over vegetables, or used in potato or egg salad. The leaves give a cooling effect to summer drinks and punch and also make a lovely garnish.
Medicinally, salad burnet can be used to treat diarrhoea and relieve haemorrhoids. As noted earlier the leaves are an effective wound herb for stemming bleeding and can be used to relieve discomfort for women going through menopause.
Due to its antiseptic and astringent properties, the leaves of salad burnet can be infused and applied to the skin for the relief of wounds, bites, sunburn, acne, and other skin conditions.
Growing conditions
Salad burnet prefers a moist, well-drained soil in a sunny to semi-shaded position. It is frost hardy and fairly drought tolerant however it is best to keep it well watered if harvesting to eat otherwise the leaves become tough and bitter. Plant approximately 20 cm apart to create an effective ground cover. Salad burnet can self-seed readily and may spread by underground rhizomes, however young plants can be easily removed for transplanting or sharing with friends.
Salad burnet is available from our herb nursery for planting now. Consider adding this versatile herb to your garden today for fresh salad greens throughout the winter months and beyond.
