Myrrhis odorata - sweet cicely

Multipurpose specialist nectary

We grow quite a bit of this - or should I say it grows itself! Sweet cicely can be a realy pain to germinate, but once you get a few plants established it will come up all over the place.

It does a great job attracting beneficial insects as it produces a lot of flowers for a fairly long time, and it will do so in partial shade or full sun, which we also like as our garden moves along in the successional process. In fact it is one of the species we most rely on for pest control in its season, and is one of our most common understory species.

We love to eat the green seeds (pictured below), which taste like green jellybeans (that is, sweet and anise-like). Some people like to eat the leaves, I'm not a big fan.

What we learned this year is that the roots are quite good to eat. They have a strong, sweet anise flavor, like a licorice carrot. I wouldn't want to eat too many as the flavor is strong, but they are very enjoyable.

Thus if the plant seeds itself too much, you have two edible vectors of control. #1: eat the seeds when they are still green. Kids go crazy for them. #2: dig up the plants and eat the roots.

That's what I call turning weeding into harvest!

We have some plants that have lived at least 5 years. Others have died away after a few years but leave behind plenty of seedlings.