Plant · P-293

Sorrel French

Rumex scutatus

French sorrel is a low, mat-forming perennial with a delicious lemon flavour and noticeably less acidity than common sorrel, so it can be eaten more freely in salads or cooked as a potherb. Unlike nearly every other salad crop in this collection, it holds the same crown year after year rather than being resown each season, tolerating heavy, alkaline soil and drought once established. It slows and looks tired through peak summer heat rather than dying outright, giving its best leaf in spring and autumn, and does better with some afternoon shade. Left alone it spreads gently by both seed and creeping rhizome into an edible groundcover, easily kept in bounds with a mower along its edge.