What to forage in February

Discover over forty wild food plants you can forage and harvest in February.

Availability should only be seen as a rough guide. Variations in climate and location will make a difference to what’s available.


Alexanders – Smyrnium olusatrum
Leaf: Raw, cooked.
Leaf stems: Raw, cooked.

Ash – Fraxinus excelsior
Seed: Raw, cooked.

Bittercress – Cardamine spp.
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Burdock – Arctium spp.
Root: Raw, cooked.

Cat’s ear – Hypochaeris radicata
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Cleavers – Galium aparine
Shoots: Raw, cooked.

Crosswort – Cruciata laevipes
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Daisy – Bellis perennis
Leaf/rosette: Raw, cooked.

Dittander – Lepidium latifolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Garlic mustard – Alliaria petiolata
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Ground elder – Aegopodium podagraria
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Ground ivy – Glechoma hederacea
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Hazel – Corylus avellana
Flowers: Cooked.

Honesty – Lunaria annua
Root: Cooked.

Hottentot fig – Carpobrotus edulis
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Lesser celandine – Ficaria verna
Leaf: Cooked.

Mallow – Malva sylvestris
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Meadowsweet – Filipendula ulmaria
Root: Cooked.

Navelwort – Umbilicus rupestris
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Nipplewort – Lapsana communis
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Oregon grape – Mahonia aquifolium
Flower: Raw.

Orpine – Sedum telephium
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Oxeye daisy – Leucanthemum vulgare
Leaf: Raw, cooked.
Shoots: Raw, cooked.

Primrose – Primula vulgaris
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Red dead nettle – Lamium purpureum
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Red valerian – Centranthus ruber
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Rough hawkbit – Leontodon hispidus
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Saxifrage – Chrysosplenium spp.
Leaf: Cooked.

Scurvygrass – Cochlearia spp.
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Sea beet – Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Sea purslane – Atriplex portulacoides
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Shepherd’s purse – Capsella bursa-pastoris
Leaf/rosette: Raw, cooked.

Silver birch – Betula pendula
Inner bark: Cooked.
Twigs: Tea.

Spear thistle – Cirsium vulgare
Midrib: Raw; cooked.

Three-cornered leek – Allium triquetrum
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Violet – Viola spp.
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

White dead nettle – Lamium album
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

White stonecrop – Sedum album
Leaf: Raw.

Wild fennel – Foeniculum vulgare
Root: Cooked.

Wild garlic – Allium ursinum
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Wood avens – Geum urbanum
Leaf: Cooked.
Root: Raw, cooked.

Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked.