The seventh bread of the Gael.

This is silverweed (Potentilaa anserina) a distinctive plant that is so common that it normally gets but a passing glance. However, an article in the latest edition of The Nature of Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage's magazine, has made me look at it with rather more interest.

The silverweed, known as brisgean, 'brittle one', in Gaelic, has been used as a foodstuff in Scotland from Mesolithic times into the modern era. In times of famine, and in the dark days of the Highland Clearances, togther with shellfish it became a life-saver, especially in the western isles where it is a common plant on the sandy grasslands known as machair.

In the Gaelic tradition it is known as the 'Blessed silverweed of the spring, the seventh bread of the Gael', as it was regularly eaten in spring when food stores were running low. The brittle roots were dug up and powdered to make a form of bread or porridge. The roots were also boiled or roasted on peat embers. Before the introduction of potatoes the Gaels sometimes grew silverweed as a crop in their lazy-beds.