Discover over sixty wild food plants you can forage and harvest in May.
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
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Ash – Fraxinus excelsior
Seedpod: Cooked
Black mustard – Brassica nigra
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Bramble – Rubus fruticosus agg.
Shoots: Raw, cooked
Bristly oxtongue – Helminthotheca echioides
Buds: Raw, cooked
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Cooked
Bush vetch – Vicia sepium
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Cat’s-ear – Hypochaeris radicata
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Chicory – Cichorium intybus
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Columbine – Aquilegia vulgaris
Flower: Raw
All other parts of this plant are considered poisonous.
Cow parsley – Anthriscus sylvestris
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Stem: Raw, cooked
Creeping thistle – Cirsium arvense
Leaf stalk: Raw, cooked
Crow garlic – Allium vineale
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Cuckooflower/lady’s smock – Cardamine pratensis
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Daisy – Bellis perennis
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Danish scurvygrass – Cochlearia danica
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Dittander – Lepidium latifolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked
English scurvygrass – Cochlearia anglica
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Garlic mustard – Alliaria petiolata
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Stem: Raw, cooked
Good king Henry – Chenopodium bonus-henricus
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Ground elder – Aegopodium podagraria
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Hairy bittercress – Cardamine hirsuta
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Hawthorn – Crataegus monogyna
Flower: Raw, cooked
Hedge bedstraw – Galium album
Leaf/shoots: Raw, cooked
Hogweed – Heracleum sphondylium
Leaf: Cooked
Shoots: Cooked
Honesty – Lunaria annua
Flower: Raw
Hop – Humulus lupulus
Shoot: Cooked
Horseradish – Armoracia rusticana
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Hottentot fig – Carpobrotus edulis
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Mallow – Malva spp.
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Marsh thistle – Cirsium palustre
Leaf stalk: Raw, cooked
Meadowsweet – Filipendula ulmaria
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Leaf stalk: Raw, cooked
Mugwort – Artemisia vulgaris
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Orache – Atriplex spp.
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Oxeye daisy – Leucanthemum vulgare
Buds: Raw, cooked
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Pignut – Conopodium majus
Root: Raw, cooked
Pineappleweed – Matricaria discoidea
Flower: Raw, cooked
Pink purslane – Claytonia sibirica
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Red dead nettle – Lamium purpureum
Flower: Raw, cooked
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Rock samphire – Crithmum maritimum
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Rosebay willowherb – Chamerion angustifolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Scurvygrass – Cochlearia spp.
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Sea aster – Aster tripolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Sea beet – Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Sea kale – Crambe maritima
Shoot: Raw, cooked
Flower: Raw, cooked
Sea purslane – Atriplex portulacoides
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Sea sandwort – Honckenya peploides
Leaf: Cooked
Shepherd’s purse – Capsella bursa-pastoris
Flower: Raw, cooked
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Sneezewort – Achillea ptarmica
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Sorrel – Rumex acetosa
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Spear leaved orache – Atriplex prostrata
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Spear thistle – Cirsium vulgare
Leaf stalk: Raw, cooked
Spring beauty – Claytonia perfoliata
Whole plant: Raw, cooked
Three cornered leek – Allium triquetrum
Flower: Raw
Tufted vetch – Vicia cracca
Flower: Raw, cooked
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Water mint – Mentha aquatica
Leaf: Raw, cooked
White dead nettle – Lamium album
Flower: Raw
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Wild angelica – Angelica sylvestris
Leaf: Cooked
Wild carrot – Daucus carota
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Wild celery – Apium graveolens
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Stem: Raw, cooked
Wild fennel – Foeniculum vulgare
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Wild garlic – Allium ursinum
Buds: Raw, cooked
Flower: Raw, cooked
Wintercress – Barbarea vulgaris
Flower: Raw, cooked
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Wood avens – Geum urbanum
Leaf: Cooked
Woodruff – Galium odoratum
Flower: Raw, cooked
Leaf: Raw, cooked
Yarrow – Achillea millefolium
Leaf: Raw, cooked