French sorrel

Photo: Thomas Mathis — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 9

Harvest calendar

Ripens: Leaves harvested spring through autumn

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

A milder, less acidic sorrel than common garden sorrel (R. acetosa), with an intense lemony tang most cooks prefer for sauces and salads. Low and creeping rather than upright, and self-seeds readily.

Hardiness

Zone 4–9

Habit

Herb

Edible part

Leaf

Ripens

Leaves harvested spring through autumn

Mature size

Low, creeping perennial to about 30 cm

Light

Full sun to part shade

Soil pH

6.0–7.5

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Europe and western Asia — rocky, dry, often calcareous ground.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

1 yr

Growth speed

Moderate — slower and lower than common sorrel

Spacing

25 cm (10 in) apart — about 16 per m² (15 per 10 sq ft)

Leaf shape

Small, shield- to arrow-shaped, blue-green, fleshy

Root system

Shallow, fibrous and creeping, with stems rooting where they run over stony ground — a scree plant, so it wants sharp drainage and rots in a wet winter bed.

Fruit description

Not a fruit crop. Small dry winged achenes on a low spike; it self-seeds freely enough to become a nuisance in a gravel path, so cut the flowering stems if that matters.

Propagation

Seed (sown in spring, about 1 cm deep), or division of established clumps.

Pollination

Wind-pollinated and functionally self-fertile in the garden — a single plant sets abundant seed, and seedlings appear wherever it is grown. The crop is leaf, so pollination is beside the point.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.