Species - Pennywort (Umbilicus rupestris)
Location - Capel Curig, Snowdonia
Grid Ref - SH 73232 57815
I was in North Wales recently on a Mountain Training workshop with Jim Langley of ‘Nature’s Work’. We were looking at various trees, grasses, plants, lichens, mosses etc, basically all the stuff you walk past every day and take for granted without knowing what it is.
This Pennywort was one of dozens of species that we identified, but I liked this one because you can eat it, and it’s easily identifiable.
Pennywort makes a lovely addition to any salad with a succulent, delicate flavour that tastes like pea, but can be sour if picked too early, and can only be found from March to October, so this was one of the first of the season.
Also called Navelwort, Wall Pennywort, or Penny Pies it can be used to cool minor burns and grazes by removing the lower surface skin on a leaf and applying it to the wound.
“Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses have knuckles that go down to the ground”
