Wild chervil

Among the most well-known plants from the Apiaceae family, along with wild carrot, wild chervil is very widespread and grows in hedgerows and at forests’ edge. This perennial plant, harvested in France, sometimes twice a year, has lightly fragranced leaves and small white flowers with 5 petals. Young leaves and fruit of wild chervil are edible and taste a lot like cultivated chervil, often used in soups in Japan. The flowers can be sprinkled over salads, and the seeds can be used as a condiment. In traditional Chinese medicine, the roots are dried and ground into a powder, then used in therapeutic doses for their stimulating, digestive, diuretic, fever-reducing and analgesic properties, as well as remedy to fight a cough.