Finding Pignut
Just been up to the Field with Glennie and we got wildly excited at finding the plant Pignut (Conopodium majus) up there on the rocky slopes… a sign of unimproved pasture. There were also several young elder trees! What an exciting first find.
“We got wildly excited at finding Pignut...”
Pignut is a small umbellifer, with edible tubers, that is found in woods, hedges and grasslands.
Common in open woodland, hedgerows and dry grassland, pignut is a small umbellifer (member of the carrot family) with fine leaves and delicate stems. Small umbels (umbrella-like clusters) of white flowers appear between May and June, and are attractive to a range of insects, such as soldier beetles and hoverflies.
How to identify
A shortish umbellifer, pignut has delicate, branched stems, finely divided leaves and white, open umbels of small flowers.