Plant · P-011

Nasturtium

Tropaeolum majus

A fast-growing, sprawling or climbing annual grown for its round, edible leaves and long-blooming flowers in red, orange, yellow, cream and pink, all of which taste peppery like watercress or mustard. The unripe green seed pods pickle as a caper substitute, and the plant is widely used to draw aphids away from other crops and to attract pollinating insects. It thrives in poor to average soil in full sun, self-sows readily where the season allows seed to mature, and is killed outright by frost.