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Chamaenerion angustifolium
Also called Rosebay Willowherb, French Willow, Great Willowherb, Willowherb
A tall, reddish-stemmed perennial wildflower of the willowherb family, known for its tapering spikes of pink flowers. It spreads readily by wind-blown seed and rhizomes, so it thrives in open, disturbed ground and recently cleared sites.
Chamaenerion angustifolium is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the willowherb family, Onagraceae. It is known in North America as fireweed and in the British Isles as both fireweed and rosebay willowherb. It is also known by the taxonomic synonyms Chamerion angustifolium and Epilobium angustifolium. It is native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, including large parts of the boreal forests.
This plant is found throughout the northern hemisphere, from 30° to 68°, but is most common in temperate climates. The species is present in the Pannonian macroregion, confirmed with herbarium specimens.
The plant is not considered palatable, but the young shoots and leaves can be cooked and eaten. Fresh leaves can be eaten raw. The young flowers are also edible (being made into jelly in the Yukon) and the stems of older plants can be split to extract the edible raw pith. The root can be roasted after scraping off the outside, but often tastes bitter. To mitigate this, the root is collected before the plant flowers and the brown thread in the middle removed. The stem centers can also be prepared by splitting the outer stalk, and eaten raw.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Chamaenerion angustifolium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
