What to forage in March

Discover over sixty wild food plants you can forage and harvest in March.

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


Ash – Fraxinus excelsior
Seed: Raw, cooked

Beech – Fagus sylvatica
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Birch – Betula pubescens
Sap: Raw, cooked

Bittercress – Cardamine spp.
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Black mustard – Brassica nigra
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Bristly oxtongue – Helminthotheca echioides
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Burdock – Arctium spp.
Petiole: Raw, cooked

Bush vetch – Vicia sativa

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

Chicory – Cichorium intybus
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Cleavers – Galium aparine
Shoots: Raw, cooked

Cow parsley – Anthriscus sylvestris
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Creeping thistle – Cirsium arvense
Stem: Raw, cooked

Crosswort – Cruciata laevipes
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Cuckooflower / Lady’s smock – Cardamine pratensis
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Daisy – Bellis perennis
Leaf/rosette: Raw, cooked

Dame’s violet – Hesperis matronalis
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Dittander – Lepidium latifolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Duke of Argyll’s teaplant – Lycium barbarum
Leaf: Cooked

Garlic mustard – Alliaria petiolata
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Ground elder – Aegopodium podagraria
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Ground ivy – Glechoma hederacea
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Hedge bedstraw – Galium album
Shoots: Raw, cooked

Hogweed – Heracleum sphondylium
Shoots: Cooked

Honesty – Lunaria annua
Root: Cooked

Hop – Humulus lupulus
Leaf: Cooked

Horseradish – Armoracia rusticana

Hottentot fig – Carpobrotus edulis
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Lesser celandine – Ficaria verna
Leaf: Cooked

Mahonia – Mahonia aquifolium
Flower: Raw

Mallow – Malva sylvestris
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Marsh thistle – Cirsium palustre
Stem: Raw, cooked

Meadowsweet – Filipendula ulmaria
Leaf: Raw, cooked.

Mugwort – Artemisia vulgaris
Leaf: Cooked

Navelwort – Umbilicus rupestris
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Nipplewort – Lapsana communis
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Orpine – Sedum telephium
Leaf: Raw, cooked

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

Pink purslane – Claytonia sibirica
Leaf: 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

Rock samphire – Crithmum maritimum
Shoots: Raw, cooked

Rosebay willowherb – Chamerion angustifolium
Shoots: 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 kale – Crambe maritima
Shoots: Raw, cooked

Sea purslane – Atriplex portulacoides
Leaf: Raw, cooked

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

Silver birch – Betula pendula
Sap: Raw cooked

Sneezewort – Achillea ptarmica
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Spear thistle – Cirsium vulgare
Stem: Raw; cooked

Springbeauty – Claytonia perfoliata
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Sycamore – Acer pseudoplatanus
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Three cornered leek – Allium triquetrum
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Tufted vetch – Vicia cracca
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Violet – Viola spp.
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Flowers: Raw, cooked

Water mint – Mentha aquatica
Leaf: Raw, cooked

White dead nettle – Lamium album
Leaf: Raw, cooked

White stonecrop – Sedum album
Leaf: Raw

Wild angelica – Angelica sylvestris
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Wild garlic / Ramsons- Allium ursinum
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Winter cress – Barbarea vulgaris
Leaf: Raw, cooked

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

Woodruff – Galium odoratum
Leaf: Raw, cooked

Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked