Until spinach was introduced this unspectacular and ubiquitous weed was a common vegetable to be served with bacon or other meat. The leaves were boiled, ground and served with butter. Like many useful and common plants it has many different common names. A few, like Muckweed, Muckhill weed, Midden Mylies for instance, give a clue that it quite likes growing on heaps of manure or compost.
These days you will often see it growing at the side of the road where road works have left a pile of soil untouched for a few months. The seed appears to enjoy sunlight as an aid to germination so disturbing any ground, particularly cultivated soil, leads to C. album shooting up within weeks in summer. The seeds have some fat in them and were identified as the last meal of Tollund man who was found in a peat bog having died in 400BC.
Cheshire Lane 15th September 2004
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Added on November 24th 2004