Hello, nice to be on this forum - I’m enthusiastic about talking to fellow plant breeding fans about my Argentina anserina syn. Potentilla anserina (Common Silverweed) domestication efforts.
I am attempting to domesticate Argentina anserina syn. Potentilla anserina (Common Silverweed, or just Silverweed) using two methods: landracing and intergeneric hybridisation.
Common Silverweed has a denser starch and nutrient content than potatoes. They propagate themselves via stolons, basically like strawberries, and wherever they root into the ground, there will inevitably be a long pencil thin storage root. This is the edible part. Silverweed also propagates itself via seeding, and this mechanism should not be underestimated as I’ve had this happen in my own garden after just one year of breeding. From my observations, Silverweed will grow nearly anywhere, but prefers ground that has a certain degree of moistness. You will see mention of Silverweed preferring seasides, but my experience is that it prefers to be near any body of water. Locally, I have seen it grow near reservoirs, canals and seasides. If you bring up the plant distribution on iNaturalist, you will accordingly find very little presence in certain regions that are known to be arid, like most of Australia, or large parts of the Mediterranean. In the US, there is a “sister” plant called Argentina pacifica or Pacific silverweed which is famous for being harvested by the First People’s of America. For more information about A. anserina, see the late Gordon Hillman’s excellent entry on the matter.
Wild A. anserina is extremely nutrient and carbohydrate dense - but there’s one sticking point. It’s hard to harvest and hard to clean. The storage roots reach deep and you’ll be hard pressed to not snap them midway if you’re harvesting in the wild. I grew mine in pots last year and was able to side step this issue, but some sources mention growing silverweed in loose, loamy raised beds. Once you’ve got hold of the storage roots, which will have lots of stubborn, hair-like roots attached to them, you’ll have to clean it. It’s hard work because the hair-like roots cling to soil and stone very strongly. I assume that these secondary roots are responsible for any nutrient gathering and the storage root we’re interested in is the result of their hard work. One nice benefit of these storage roots is that the specimens travel well. I’ve had tiny fragments of storage root regenerate. The secondary hair-like roots burn easily when it comes to cooking too (they also stick in your teeth), which makes preparation and consumption of Silverweed so burdensome that it’s got an - undeserved! - reputation for being a famine food.
So I hope I’ve led you to the conclusion that Common Silverweed deserves to be domesticated. And when I say “domestication”, I mean in much the same way as the humble carrot was domesticated from the wild carrot: fattening the storage root and reducing the hair-like roots. Silverweed has something going for it that the carrot does not though, which is the self propagation. What some view as the “weedy” property of Silverweed can be harnessed to great good - just picture a bed of self propagating Silverweed; minimal effort, maximum gain, pulling up wheelbarrow loads of carrot-thick Silverweed come autumn-time.
My main aims are to create a landrace of Silverweed with rich genetic diversity, and simultaneously attempt an intergeneric hybrid of Silverweed with some other Potentilla species, for an even richer gene pool. From there, I hope to domesticate Silverweed using the typical methods of inbreeding and backcrossing until we arrive at the thickest possible root, hopefully preserving the vigour of the wild ancestor.
I hope to have other people join me in the domestication efforts too, but I will attempt to create this rich seed bank first.
In any case, I look forward to discussions about this and other plant breeding projects with you guys.
As an aside, a lot of this post is cribbed from one of my substack posts. I’ll keep an up to date list of silverweed related posts at the bottom of this post:
- Attempts to cultivate a better Silverweed
- Silverweed Breeding Progress Report #2 - by A. Potentilla
- Silverweed Breeding Progress Report #3 - by A. Potentilla
- Selection Criteria - by A. Potentilla
- Nepal Cinquefoil - by A. Potentilla
- Silverweed Progress Report #4 - by A. Potentilla
- Silverweed Recipes - by A. Potentilla
- Silverweed Progress Report #5 - by A. Potentilla
- Silverweed Musings - by A. Potentilla
- Real-life Silverweed Cuisine - by A. Potentilla
