The roots of the silverweed are edible, but the harvest of wild forms is hardly worthwhile, so that they are mainly useful as famine food. In Tibet, the roots are supposed to be eaten comparatively frequently as a nourishing root vegetable. They can be processed fresh or dried for later use. Dried roots are ground and used as a flour substitute together with cereal flour or processed into vegetable mash. Raw they are best eaten rasped, otherwise in stews, baked or pickled.

The leaves can be chopped (because they are very fibrous) and added as wild herbs in salads or steamed in oil. They can also be used to make herbal tea. They taste slightly sour.

Common silverweed is not very important as a food, but it is an appreciated medicinal plant and is used extensively in phytotherapy.

Because of the fine, silvery hairs of the leaves, the silverweed has its name. In German it is therefore called “Silberblatt” and in French “Argentine”. The silverweed or silver cinquefoil is closely related to the genus Potentilla, also known in English as “cinquefoil”, to which this species used to belong.

The first picture shows a foam nest under the large leaf, generated by the meadow spittlebug, in which its larvae is protected until they grow to the imago.

• Edible Roots Leaves
• Culinary Group Root vegetable Wild vegetables
• Also used as Wild herbs Flour substitutes
• Taste neutral acidic
• Trivial Names Gänsefingerkraut, Djüma, Krampfkraut, Anserine, Dreckkraut, Gänserich, Gänsewiß, Grensel, Martinshand, Silberblatt, Säukraut, Silverweed, Common silverweed, Silver cinquefoil, Potentille ansérine, Potentille des oies, Argentine, Gåsört
• Size (leaf) 10 cm
• Taxonomy Rosaceae (rose family) Argentina anserina, Syn. Potentilla anserina
• Origin Circumpolar: Europe, Scandinavia, North-America, Arctic, East-Siberia, Siberia, Eurasian Steppe, Himalaya (Map)
• Locality Botanischer Garten Frankfurt (FRT) 2018