Fool’s Watercress





Although it is usually described as poor mans cress it tastes nothing like cress so it is an unfair comparison, it tastes pleasantly of carrot and is great as a cooked green vegetable.
Hedgerow Type | |
Common Names | Fool’s Watercress, Poor Mans Watercress |
Scientific Name | Apium nodiflorum |
Season Start | Mar |
Season End | Dec |
Please note that each and every hedgerow item you come across may vary in appearance to these photos.
Possible Confusion
True Watercress, pictured, but it smells of cress unlike the carrot smelling Fool’s Watercress. Lesser Water Parsnip, Berula Erecta which is more upright, smells of parsnip and has rings around its stem at the leaf nodes but is not poisonous so this wouldn’t be a fatal mistake to make.
Smell
Strongly of carrot.
Taste
Carrot.
Collecting
When collecting Fool’s Watercress from the wild it must be cooked as out of site upstream there might be sheep and if so there is the potential for liver flukes which can cause fascioliasis, a nasty liver disease.
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