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Does anyone know what this is? It grows where I grew my salads last year, it grows nowhere else in my garden, and it looks sort of neat, the way the plants are spaced, so I suspect I sowed it and that it's edible. Any ideas?

Sweet William?

Quote from: ancellsfarmer on April 27, 2013, 21:31:42
Sweet William?

Very similar but not quite right I think... not that I have a clue what it might be.

It don't look edible to me.. more of something 'flower wise' or wild 'thingy'. It does look familiar but I cannot put my 'finger on' to name it. Once it grows little bit more perharps then.
BTW...you don't have some sort of campanulas nearby/ in neighbourhood or some great willowherbs? ..just something that tickle my memory when looking at your photo..
Perennial cornflower?..another 'tickle'..

Looks sort of willowherby to me, somehow just doesn't look like an edible, it's rosette-y not leafy, but otoh it doesn't look like any poisonous plant that I know of. I wouldn't eat it, though, till I was a lot more sure.

Knapweed?

Looks like Centaurea (knapweed) I have bit growing in my garden and it looks the same at the moment. It has a blue flower like a thistle and the bees love it, also called cornflower but not the same as the usual ones this has a much bigger flower. One of my favourites.

Try some but remember to leave some on the kitchen table in case you dont survive 

It does look similar to a knapweed - there seem to be several varieties:

Click here for a look: Short-fringed - Tyrol Knapweed

Thanks Gavin, it's not terribly poisonous. I ate only a bit of a leaf. It's also not terribly tasty, but it gets going quite enthousiastically in the hungry gap, though I don't think anymore that it might be an edible. The honeybees like it, though. The closest of the suggestions above was Sweet Williams, but it has only 4 petals.

I had a look on two websites for weed identification, but couldn't find anything that fit. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Quote from: martinburo on June 13, 2013, 19:23:09
Thanks Gavin, it's not terribly poisonous. I ate only a bit of a leaf. It's also not terribly tasty, but it gets going quite enthousiastically in the hungry gap, though I don't think anymore that it might be an edible. The honeybees like it, though. The closest of the suggestions above was Sweet Williams, but it has only 4 petals.

I had a look on two websites for weed identification, but couldn't find anything that fit. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Try this :http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Pages/FreeFindSearchExt.htm

Looks like a whitish version of hesperis or sweet rocket normally purple.  People think mine is honesty.

Herperis has a nice smell to the flowers.  Not sure about edibility.  Can be invasive where it has happy.

http://www.aphotoflora.com/d_hesperis_matronalis_dames_violet.html

Dame's violet, it's a naturalised non-native, quite often seen around urban fringe areas. It's locally frequent on the edge of the riverside woodland in Durham city near the cathedral.

That's it. Yes, it does have quite a strong smell. Thank you