I discovered a new weed in my garden this year! Cutleaf vipergrass (Scorzonera laciniata).
It’s in the same genus as oyster plant (Scorzonera hispanica), the species that’s usually known as scorzonera and has roots that taste like oysters. This one’s roots probably don’t have any flavor; I don’t know, because I haven’t tried it, but online sources seem to say the roots are flavorless.
The leaves are long and thin, but there are a good number of them. The leaves and flower heads resemble dandelions a little (just like a lot of plants in the Asteraceae family).
The leaves have a very mild flavor. So mild that my eyebrows went up when I tasted them. There was no bitterness at all, and that’s rare for leaves in my climate in summer. Their mild lettuce-y flavor was very similar the leaves of salsify, a weed in the Asteraceae family that I love.
So, I’ve let it go to seed, and I’m letting some seeds blow wherever they will, while I’m gathering others and sticking them in the ground in convenient places. I’ve successfully turned salsify into a frequent volunteer in unirrigated spaces in my garden by doing that; I bet cutleaf vipergrass will do well that way, too.
I strongly believe that it’s a good idea to choose your own weeds. I pull out anything I don’t like (such as bindweed, prickly lettuce, thistles, etc.) and let anything I do like go to seed and do whatever it wishes, as long as it’s not in the way of things I’m actively planting. Because of that, I get a fair amount of extra harvest from tasty edible weeds.
Look at your native plants. Look at the weeds that volunteer in your garden. If you don’t know what some new thing is, find out. After all, I may pull out stickyweed (Galium aparine) because its stickiness annoys me and I don’t want caffeine, but you might be delighted to have it.
Notice your weeds. Choose the ones you want to keep. You may be getting something nifty that’s right under your nose that would be well-worth allowing to volunteer places on purpose.