I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that chervil
is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?

"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
...
I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that
chervil is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?

The chervil I bought from a respected grower is an annual, it's dying off
now. The flowers are tiny and white, the plant was small. I must admit I'm
disappointed, it hasn't been worth the effort :-(

Mary

"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" writes
I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that chervil
is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?


My first reaction was that I couldn't think offhand of an umbellifer
with pink flowers, but looking it up gives Hogweed, Hedge Parsley,
Greater Burnet Saxifrage, Coriander, Cumin, Corky fruited/tubular Water
Dropworts, Sulphurwort as having flowers which are sometimes pink.

Can you produce two good closeup pics, one of the leaf, another of the
flower, showing clearly any green spiky bits at the back of either the
main umbel or the little mini-umbels? Description of stem (colour, shape
and hairiness) and fruit would also help.

Umbelliferae is not a family to mess with unless you are sure of the
identification.

--
Kay

"K" wrote in message
...
"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" writes
I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that
chervil
is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?


My first reaction was that I couldn't think offhand of an umbellifer with
pink flowers, but looking it up gives Hogweed, Hedge Parsley, Greater
Burnet Saxifrage, Coriander, Cumin, Corky fruited/tubular Water Dropworts,
Sulphurwort as having flowers which are sometimes pink.

Can you produce two good closeup pics, one of the leaf, another of the
flower, showing clearly any green spiky bits at the back of either the
main umbel or the little mini-umbels? Description of stem (colour, shape
and hairiness) and fruit would also help.

Umbelliferae is not a family to mess with unless you are sure of the
identification.

--
Kay

Thanks
I will eventually post a few pics when it next flowers and I have my new
camera. Googling those possibilities you gave, may give me a clue.

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Rupert \(W.Yorkshire\)" contains these words:

I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a
large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that
chervil
is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?

It sounds very like sweet cecily except for the pink flowers. Sweet
cecily I've grown is always white flowered. I'd be wary of tasting
those seeds until you ID it since some umbellifers are very poisonous.

Could it be pink cow parsley? There is a form of it sold for garden use.

Janet

--
Isle of Arran Open Gardens weekend 21,22,23 July 2006
5 UKP three-day adult ticket (funds go to island charities) buys entry
to 26 private gardens

I have been munching the odd seeds for the last few years and they do taste
of aniseed. I will now desist until I am certain of the ID and will content
myself with extra portions of wild garlic.
Pink Cow Parsley led me to Hairy Chervil 'Roseum' (Chaerophyllum hirsutum)
which is nearly right except my flower heads are a much deeper pink than
those in any pictures I could find.

Janet Baraclough writes
The message
from "Rupert \(W.Yorkshire\)" contains these words:

I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that
chervil
is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?

It sounds very like sweet cecily except for the pink flowers. Sweet
cecily I've grown is always white flowered.

Sweet Cicely: Flowers white, but just in case: Downy, 1m, no lower
braacts, ie no linear 'leaf' where all the stems of the tiny umbels join
to be the main umbel.Leaves 2-4 pinnate ie the l+eaflets have leaflets,
which may in turn have leaflets, have leaflets. Leaves have pale flecks.
Fruits 2cm long and ribbed, dark shiny brown.

I'd be wary of tasting
those seeds until you ID it since some umbellifers are very poisonous.

Could it be pink cow parsley? There is a form of it sold for garden use.

Cow parsley: Downy, 1m, stems hollow, often becoming purple. No lower
bracts. Leaves 3-pinnate, Fruits smooth, long, broader at the base.
--
Kay

Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "Rupert \(W.Yorkshire\)" contains these words:


I have been munching the odd seeds for the last few years and they do taste
of aniseed. I will now desist until I am certain of the ID and will content
myself with extra portions of wild garlic.

For aniseed taste, try the ripe seeds of fennel (supposed to
supprersss appetitie as an aid to weight loss) I also enjoy a
munch-in-passing on fennel leaf, mints, chives and garlic chives.

Janet

--
Isle of Arran Open Gardens weekend 21,22,23 July 2006
5 UKP three-day adult ticket (funds go to island charities) buys entry
to 26 private gardens

Fennel is supposed to also aid acid heartburn / indigestion, I take
fennel tea ( tea bags )some times it 's quite nice

"Gardening_Convert" wrote
Janet Baraclough wrote:
For aniseed taste, try the ripe seeds of fennel (supposed to
supprersss appetitie as an aid to weight loss) I also enjoy a
munch-in-passing on fennel leaf, mints, chives and garlic chives.

Fennel is supposed to also aid acid heartburn / indigestion, I take
fennel tea ( tea bags )some times it 's quite nice

It ought to work as fennel was traditionally an ingredient in the gripe
water given to babies with colic.

--
Sue

On 20/6/06 13:43, in article
ws.net, "Sue"
wrote:


"Gardening_Convert" wrote
Janet Baraclough wrote:
For aniseed taste, try the ripe seeds of fennel (supposed to
supprersss appetitie as an aid to weight loss) I also enjoy a
munch-in-passing on fennel leaf, mints, chives and garlic chives.

Fennel is supposed to also aid acid heartburn / indigestion, I take
fennel tea ( tea bags )some times it 's quite nice

It ought to work as fennel was traditionally an ingredient in the gripe
water given to babies with colic.

I thought it was and then I thought it was dill?

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(email address on website)

On 20/6/06 17:09, in article , "Janet
Baraclough" wrote:

The message ews.net
from "Sue" contains these words:


"Gardening_Convert" wrote
Janet Baraclough wrote:
For aniseed taste, try the ripe seeds of fennel (supposed to
supprersss appetitie as an aid to weight loss) I also enjoy a
munch-in-passing on fennel leaf, mints, chives and garlic chives.

Fennel is supposed to also aid acid heartburn / indigestion, I take
fennel tea ( tea bags )some times it 's quite nice

It ought to work as fennel was traditionally an ingredient in the gripe
water given to babies with colic.

Wasn't that dill? (in Woodwards' gw, anyway).

I swear by gripe water. Strangely, in Glasgow there's a widespread
urban myth that it's the alcoholic recourse of slatterns, akin to
feeding babies on gin. As a young ma I was upbraided by another for
making my comatose baby drunk on gripewater, (instead of screaming for
hours on end, blue in the face, like her own). So I showed her the
bottle which listed the contents by proportion, "alcohol 0.025 %".

"Like I said " she said scornfully " twentyfive percent; that means a
quarter of the bottle is pure alcohol".

Sounds like she and I had the same maths teacher. ;-) But some years ago
there was a documented theory that children given gripe water did become
alcoholics. I can't remember how long ago I read this but I think it when
mine (now mid twenties to thirty) were past that stage.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(email address on website)

Janet Baraclough writes
The message ews.net
from "Sue" contains these words:


"Gardening_Convert" wrote
Janet Baraclough wrote:
For aniseed taste, try the ripe seeds of fennel (supposed to
supprersss appetitie as an aid to weight loss) I also enjoy a
munch-in-passing on fennel leaf, mints, chives and garlic chives.

Fennel is supposed to also aid acid heartburn / indigestion, I take
fennel tea ( tea bags )some times it 's quite nice

It ought to work as fennel was traditionally an ingredient in the gripe
water given to babies with colic.

Wasn't that dill? (in Woodwards' gw, anyway).

I swear by gripe water. Strangely, in Glasgow there's a widespread
urban myth that it's the alcoholic recourse of slatterns, akin to
feeding babies on gin. As a young ma I was upbraided by another for
making my comatose baby drunk on gripewater, (instead of screaming for
hours on end, blue in the face, like her own). So I showed her the
bottle which listed the contents by proportion, "alcohol 0.025 %".

They reduced the alcoholic content considerably just before I became a
mother :-(

It used to be a higher content.
--
Kay

Rupert (W.Yorkshire) wrote:
I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that chervil
is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?

It might be yarrow, which isn't really used as a culinary herb any
more, but used to be - it was also used as a toothache remedy. It
certainly fits the flower/foliage description, and it's a perennial.
There is a pink variety, which we have in our garden.

--
www.gastronomydomine.com

Squeezeweasel writes

Rupert (W.Yorkshire) wrote:
I have a plant that has ferny foliage and a cow parsley type pink flower.
It is now seeding and the seeds taste of aniseed. This thing forms a large
evergreen clump even during frosts and springs to life early in the year
(spring)
I have always thought this was Chervil but someone has told me that chervil
is an annual and does not overwinter.
Could it be some other culinary herb?

It might be yarrow, which isn't really used as a culinary herb any
more, but used to be - it was also used as a toothache remedy. It
certainly fits the flower/foliage description, and it's a perennial.
There is a pink variety, which we have in our garden.

Does yarrow seed taste of aniseed?
--
Kay

"Janet Baraclough" wrote
The message ews.net
from "Sue" contains these words:

It ought to work as fennel was traditionally an ingredient in the
gripe water given to babies with colic.

Wasn't that dill? (in Woodwards' gw, anyway).

I swear by gripe water. Strangely, in Glasgow there's a widespread
urban myth that it's the alcoholic recourse of slatterns, akin to
feeding babies on gin. As a young ma I was upbraided by another for
making my comatose baby drunk on gripewater, (instead of screaming
for hours on end, blue in the face, like her own). So I showed her the
bottle which listed the contents by proportion, "alcohol 0.025 %".

"Like I said " she said scornfully " twentyfive percent; that means a
quarter of the bottle is pure alcohol".

Oh I remember using Woodwards. Is it still sold? Yes, that contained
dill, and other brands and traditional recipes also similarly used
fennel in various gripe remedies. No doubt the alcohol content has been
banned by now!

I won't mention that detail to my son as he already likes to tell the
tale of how he was force-fed alcoholic beverages to keep him quiet as a
teething infant. The truth is slightly less scandalous. While he was
teething and we'd run out of Dentinox gel, I did once in final
desperation resort to rubbing his sore gums with a tiny drop of Drambuie
instead, on the dubious grounds that whisky used to be used as an
anaesthetic, and it was all there was to hand. Whether or not it was
just the strange taste or alcoholic anaesthesia, it worked a treat and
got him off to sleep! :-)

--
Sue

"Janet Baraclough" wrote
The message ews.net
from "Sue" contains these words:

It ought to work as fennel was traditionally an ingredient in the
gripe water given to babies with colic.

Wasn't that dill? (in Woodwards' gw, anyway).

I swear by gripe water. Strangely, in Glasgow there's a widespread
urban myth that it's the alcoholic recourse of slatterns, akin to
feeding babies on gin. As a young ma I was upbraided by another for
making my comatose baby drunk on gripewater, (instead of screaming
for hours on end, blue in the face, like her own). So I showed her the
bottle which listed the contents by proportion, "alcohol 0.025 %".

"Like I said " she said scornfully " twentyfive percent; that means a
quarter of the bottle is pure alcohol".

Oh I remember using Woodwards. Is it still sold? Yes, that contained
dill, and other brands and traditional recipes also similarly used
fennel in various gripe remedies. No doubt the alcohol content has been
banned by now!

I won't mention that detail to my son as he already likes to tell the
tale of how he was force-fed alcoholic beverages to keep him quiet as a
teething infant. The truth is slightly less scandalous. While he was
teething and we'd run out of Dentinox gel, I did once in final
desperation resort to rubbing his sore gums with a tiny drop of Drambuie
instead, on the dubious grounds that whisky used to be used as an
anaesthetic, and it was all there was to hand. Whether or not it was
just the strange taste or alcoholic anaesthesia, it worked a treat and
got him off to sleep! :-)

--
Sue