BCSS - Forum

This is the best ever penny pie I have grown.

They generally get weeded out these days as they pop up everywhere but this one showed particular promise.

Far more used to seeing it growing on/in walls or roofs, including greenhouse roofs, wherever the minutest trace of debris/humus has built-up. That is one mammoth example though, destined to produce staggering amounts of seed.

I could not believe my eyes when I first saw it offered in a nursery as a rock/alpine plant.

Supposedly a very nice addition to a salad! Never tried it myself.

The seed for that ones parent came from a dry stone wall on the dye of Dartmoor where I grew up so it is kept for sentimental reasons really. I am mildly tempted to pot it up and enter it into our show next week as an ‘any succulent’ and see what happens….

It brings back memories Mike, I grew up in West Cornwall, the stone hedges were covered in these and many other wildflowers. I hope to visit your show next week, so I'll be checking

Mike P wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 12:36 pm I am mildly tempted to pot it up and enter it into our show next week as an ‘any succulent’ and see what happens….

juster wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 12:48 pm It brings back memories Mike, I grew up in West Cornwall, the stone hedges were covered in these and many other wildflowers.

It is well over 20 years since I lived just outside Totnes and what will always stick in my mind of all wall flora, were quite large numbers of bee orchids, if memory is correct, alongside one of the lanes that ran/runs up to Moretonhampstead (maybe Bovey?). Not quite stone walls, not quite Devon banks, but the orchids obviously liked the conditions.

Or have a gourmet salad?

The lanes are covered with them round here. We had a local TV program not so long ago with some old chap, probably over 80, munching on them, and saying what a nice salad they make. But assuming they are a CAM plant, they may be quite acidic.

Taste is supposedly variable - no doubt at least somewhat dependant upon age. Said to have a slight peppery taste at best, bland at worst.