Salad Burnet - Sanguisorba minor - €6 per plant 

Salad Burnet is a tough evergreen perennial, tolerant of both drought and cold,  that is very easy to grow. The plant provides fresh salad greens year round also providing forage for a diversity of wildlife. It's a great choice for sunny dry, infertile areas of the garden, making good ground cover, stabilizing the soil and building fertility . The plants we are offering are propagated from plants selected for vigorous top growth ,providing lots of salad material. To order this plant please contact us [email protected].  

Context

  • native region: W.Europe - W.Asia
  • native habitat: Grassland, usually on calcareous soils
  • family: Rosaceae

Predators

  • Herbivorous animals  but in a garden setting no considerable damage is done

Needs, tolerances 

  • Light: Semi-shade or no shade
  • soil pH:  Acid, neutral -basic alkaline
  • Likes calcareous soils
  • USDA Hardiness Zone: 4 - 8
  • If the plant is cut back to the ground during the growing season it will produce a new flush of young leaves.
  • Will not grow well in very fertile ground
  • Drought tolerant 


Known hazards 

  • None known

Overview

  • 10 x 12cm plant bag
  • Evergreen herbaceous perennial growing to 0.6 m by 0.3 m.
  • It is in flower from May to August, and the seeds ripen from July to September. 
  • The flowers are monoecious (male and female organs on separate flowers) and are pollinated by Bees
  • Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils.
  • Prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil.
  • Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils and can grow in very alkaline soils.
  • It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers moist soil.
  • The plant can tolerate maritime exposure.

Characteristics

  • form: evergreen herbaceous perennial 
  • layer : Ground Layer
  • habit: clumping
  • height x width (m): 0.7 x 0.4
  • years to bearing yield: 0 years  
  • productive life span: 7-12 years

Products 

  • Leaf: mixed with other salads, used fresh and dry for tea. Used in herb vinegar mixtures. The summer leaves can be tough and bitter.
  • Medicinal: In the 17th century it was used against the Plague,  but today it is mostly know medicinally for its astringent properties
  • Plants have extensive root systems and are used for erosion control, they are also used to reclaim landfills and mined-out terrain
  • It provides high-value forage for livestock in general and is especially valuable as domestic sheep forage

Functions, behaviours

  • Burred fruit containing seeds dispersed by animals
  • Plants often self-sow, sometimes to the point of nuisance.
  • Some plants may sprout from rhizomes
  • Associated more closely with disturbance than with particular plant communities
  • Viable seed can persist for at least 30 years in the soil
  • Provides good wildlife forage for herbivorous mammals, insects and birds.
If you would like this plant please send an email to [email protected] with your order. 
Balkan Ecology Project