Sium sisarum

Before the introduction of potatoes Skirret was a popular root vegetable, with the swollen tuberous roots offering a flavour somewhere in between sweet carrots and parsnips; cooked in all the usual ways and also eaten raw, grated into salads. Skirret basically means 'white root' and on the continent it is known as 'sugar root'. Beyond all this it is an attractive white flowered ornamental umbellifer, producing flattened heads of flower in July/August. Fully hardy and easy in full sun and most soils, reaching 1m high.