A perennial which grows 60 cm (2 ft.) tall and spreads indefinitely, it has fleshy, downy stems, dark-green, arrow-shaped leaves and greenish-yellow spikes of sorrel-like flowers in early summer.<\/p>\n
According to the 16th-century physician and botanist, Rembert Dodoens, of the Netherlands, this plant was dubbed bonus henricus, \u201cgood Henry\u201d, to distinguish it from a poisonous plant ma\/us henricus, \u201cbad Henry\u201d. There is some uncertainty as to who \u201cHenry\u201d was, but one source claims it is a generic term for mischievous elves. \u201cKing\u201d appears to have been spin-doctored into the English popular name to give this rather unattractive plant a spurious connection with King Henry VIII, \u201cGood King Hal\u201d. The Latin name Chenopodium is derived from the Greek for \u201cgoose foot\u201d, an eloquent reference to the shape of the leaves.<\/p>\n
Chenopodium album, White Goosefoot also known as all-good and fat hen (because it does a good job of fattening poultry) as well as pigweed, mutton tops and lamb\u2019s quarters. It has long been a staple food of both animals and people. The Iron Age Dane, Tollund Man, made a last meal of it before he was hanged, seeds being found in his stomach.<\/p>\n
This is an invasive plant which needs no cultivation and thrives in any soil. Said to be of \u201csuperior quality\u201d if grown in rich soil, but little difference in taste or texture will be noticed. Tough taproots can make it difficult to eradicate if no longer wanted. Easily propagated from seed, or division, in spring.<\/p>\n
Once made into ointments and poultices for skin complaints (an old name was \u201csmear-wort\u201d) but has no known medicinal value currently, apart from being mildly laxative.<\/p>\n
Extravagant claims have been made for this plant as being a spinach-like vegetable (leaves) and asparagus substitute (young stems). Although edible if picked when young and tender, the leaves develop a fibrous texture with age which makes them less palatable. John Evelyn (Acetaria 1719) was right when in reference to one of its names, \u201cb-lite\u201d, from the Greek for insipid, he commented that \u201cit is well-named, being insipid enough\u201d. It is rich in vitamins C, B’, iron and calcium so it may be a case of \u201ceating up your greens\u201d for the sake of your health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A perennial which grows 60 cm (2 ft.) tall and spreads indefinitely, it has fleshy, downy stems, dark-green, arrow-shaped leaves and greenish-yellow spikes of sorrel-like flowers in early summer. History and traditions According to the 16th-century physician and botanist, Rembert Dodoens, of the Netherlands, this plant was dubbed bonus henricus, \u201cgood Henry\u201d, to distinguish it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,111,157,97,119,105,110,127,103,113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-z","category-alkaline-soil","category-flowering","category-full","category-green","category-loamy-soil","category-neutral-soil","category-perennial","category-sandy-soil","category-spring"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Chenopodium bonus-henricus","common-names":"Good King Henry, Perennial Lincolnshire spinach, Poor-man's asparagus, Markery, Goosefoot, ","family":"Chenopodiaceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":113,"name":"Spring","slug":"spring","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":113,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":96,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":119,"name":"Green","slug":"green","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":119,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":34,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":157,"name":"Flowering","slug":"flowering","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":157,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":6,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":111,"name":"Alkaline Soil","slug":"alkaline-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":111,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":117,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":102,"name":"Clay Soil","slug":"clay-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":102,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":108,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":103,"name":"Sandy Soil","slug":"sandy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":103,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":147,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 3 - 9","region_or_country_of_origin":"Central and southern Europe ","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 2\u00bd feet<\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}