Salad burnet

Description

Sanguisorba minor, the salad burnet, garden burnet, small burnet, burnet (also used for Sanguisorba generally), pimpernelle, Toper's plant, and burnet-bloodwort, is an edible perennial herbaceous plant in the family Rosaceae. It has ferny, toothed-leaf foliage; the unusual crimson, spherical flower clusters rise well above the leaves on thin stems. It generally grows to 25–55 cm tall (moisture-dependent; as short as 2 cm in dry areas). The large, long (sometimes 1m/3-foot), taproots store water, making it drought-tolerant. Salad burnet is native to western, central and southern Europe; northwest Africa, southwest Western Asia and Siberia. In Britain, it is not native, but has been naturalized since the 16th century. It has also naturalized in most of North America, in South America, Australia, and New Zealand. It is not generally invasive, co-existing with other plants and increasing species diversity. As of 2008 it had been reported as invasive in just one place, a pasture in Wyoming. The variables controlling salad burnet spread in North America are poorly studied. In Europe it is found only in calcerous soils (see limestone), and is most common on chalk soils (see chalk) in England. In France, it grows on alluvial meadows, and in the south of France, on Kermes oak maquis (a Quercus coccifera shrubland ecosystem with siliceous soil) and garrigue (a shrubland ecosystem with calcareous soil). In Spain, it grows on silaceous soils. In North America the species is probably much less diverse, due to founder effects and heavy selective breeding for forage value, including selection for cold-tolerance. It grows in a variety of soil types, generally infertile, well-drained soils, including weakly saline and weakly alkaline or acidic soild. In North America, it grows at a broad range of elevations. It is cold- and frost-tolerant, growing in USDA hardiness zones 4a-8a, but does not grow well in shade. It grows well on slopes and disturbed soil, and is sometimes used to stabilize soil. The delar cultivar widely grown in North America does not grow in damp or flooding areas, and needs over 14 inches (36 cm) of precipitation per year.