Wild chervil

Among the most well-known plants from the Apiaceae family, along with wild carrot, wild chervil is widespread and grows in hedgerows and on forests' edges. This perennial plant, harvested in France sometimes twice a year, has lightly fragranced leaves and small white flowers with five petals. Young leaves and fruit of wild chervil are edible and taste like cultivated chervil, often eaten as a soup in Japan. The flowers can be sprinkled over salads, and the seeds can be used as a condiment. In traditional Chinese medicine, the roots are dried and ground into a powder, then used in therapeutic doses for their stimulating, digestive, diuretic, fever-reducing, analgesic properties and as a remedy to fight a cough.