In spring, the young, still low-fibre shoots of the creeping cinquefoil, together with its leaves and flowers, can be harvested in damp meadows. Finely chopped, it is suitable as a seasoning herb in salads or dried in herbal salt. In summer the fresh flowers can be used as edible decoration.

The five-fingered leaves (hence their name) are normally unfolded during the day, but half closed on the pictures, since the turgor pressure in the cells cannot be maintained after picking. The stalks of the cinquefoil crawl along the ground and form roots on the leaf axils. Because they often grow in meadows (as this one showed here), the leaves are long stalked to rise above the grass.

• Edible Leaves and herbs Flowers
• Culinary Group Wild herbs
• Taste (mild) aromatic
• Trivial Names Kriechendes Fingerkraut, Creeping cinquefoil, European cinquefoil, Creeping tormentil, Herbe à cinq feuilles, Main-de-Mars
• Size (whole shoot) 26 cm
• Taxonomy Rosaceae (Rose family) Potentilla reptans
• Origin Eurasia (Europe, Near East, Eurasian Steppe) (Map)
• Locality Gathered (Park Frankfurt) 2017