Corn salad (Valerianella locusta)
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Corn salad (Valerianella locusta) is a small dicot annual plant of the family Valerianaceae. It is also called Lewiston cornsalad, fetticus, mache, mâche, doucette, rampon, rampien, lamb’s lettuce, field salad (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldsalat), nüssli, nüsslisalat, and rapunzel.
Corn salad grows in a low rosette with spatulate leaves up to 15.2cm long.[1] It is a hardy plant that grows to zone 5, and in mild climates it is grown as a winter green. In warm conditions it tends to bolt to seed.[2]
Corn salad grows wild in parts of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia.[3] In Europe and Asia it is a common weed in cultivated land and waste spaces. In North America it has escaped cultivation and become naturalized on both the eastern and western seaboards.[4]
Mache was originally foraged by European peasants until the royal gardener of King Louis XIV, de Quintinie, introduced corn salad to the world. [5]
Like other formerly foraged greens, mache has many nutrients, including three times as much Vitamin C as lettuce, beta-carotene, B6, B9, Vitamin E, and omega-3 fatty acids.