There are many reasons to clearly recognize chickweed. Be it that we want to use the herb for medicinal purposes. Or we want to get its valuable minerals into our salad. Reliably recognizing its typical characteristics also helps to avoid confusion with poisonous plants.
How do you recognize chickweed?
Chickweed is recognized by its small, white flowers, oval and pointed green leaves arranged in pairs and a thin, soft stem with a hairline. It prefers to grow on arable land, in gardens, along roadsides and on rubble sites.
Look in the right places
The chickweed is particularly adaptable. It is one of the first plants to colonize fallow, barren areas. That's why it has now spread worldwide. It is particularly well represented in temperate regions. However, the herb is picky and does not thrive equally well in every soil. If you want to collect chickweed, you might find it here:
- on arable land,
- in gardens
- along roadsides
- on rubble sites
Growth and appearance
Chickweed is a delicate plant that, despite its inconspicuousness, can be easily distinguished from other wild plants. These are their visible characteristics:
- annual, herbaceous plant
- low growing, reaches a height of between 10 and 40 cm
- spreads over the surface, forms carpets
- Flowers are small, white and numerous
- in mild years it blooms all year round
- Flowers only open when the weather is nice
- the plant forms capsule fruits with seeds
- Leaves are small, green, oval and pointed
- each arranged in pairs facing each other
- the stem is thin, green and soft
- he has a hairline
Likelihood of confusion
Chickweed can be confused with other species of chickweed, which is not recommended. This has taste reasons. While connoisseurs describe chickweed as mild and tasty, stitchwort, for example, is rather inedible. However, it is not poisonous. Not even a similar wild herb called water intestine.
More caution is required when it comes to Ackergauchheil, because this risk of confusion has far-reaching consequences. Field gauchheil contains saponins, which are poisonous to us humans. That's why the wild plant is considered slightly poisonous. It should not be consumed at all or only in very small quantities.
Tip
During its flowering period, the field gauchheil can be clearly distinguished from the chickweed by the color of the flowers. Its flowers are orange. The one of the chickweed is white.
Sowing and harvesting
If you are unsure about identifying herbs and want to prevent mistakes when collecting, you can also grow chickweed specifically in the garden. Retailers now offer seed bags (€5.00 on Amazon). Growing it is worthwhile because chickweed provides us with more valuable ingredients than, for example, lettuce.
Tip
Chigweed produces abundant seeds. From the beginning, make sure that it cannot spread throughout the garden. It then becomes difficult to fight.
