Attempts to cultivate a better Silverweed
Silverweed domestication for the future
For convenience, here is an index of my Silverweed related content.
This post previously appeared on my initial attempts at a blog, but I decided to migrate it over to here instead
Silver-what?
Argentina anserina, or Potentilla anserina, or by the more beautiful common names of silverweed, common silverweed or silver cinquefoil, is in my estimations an undiscovered giant of a staple tuber. Imagine crossing the nutrient density of a potato with the vigour of a strawberry patch and you'll get somewhere close.
Silverweed is so called because it has delicate silvery, feather-like leaves and an ability to spread rampantly through ornamental gardens via it's runners.
It has a higher carbohydrate density than a potato and a wider climatic tolerance, not to mention being perennial.
Numerous groups of humans have subsisted on silverweed in times gone by, including some Native American tribes and inhabitants of the British Isles.
You can find far more information about this remarkable weed by browsing the links at the bottom of this page - I'm just trying to whet your appetite for the main course.
The problem
The main problem we face with silverweed is that they're annoying to harvest. In the wild, they meant to be a pain to pull up intact because they can grow in hard, stony soil. And when you do pull them up, there are a mass of roots but they're thin and difficult to clean. There is some evidence that frequent harvesting makes the roots thicker but there is little experimentation as they've fallen into the "dandelion" status of edible foods - technically edible but people just find them a pain in the ass.
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A possible solution
There's a lot going for silverweed. It's robust, maintenance free, basically pest free, perennial, nutrient dense and tolerant of many different climates. The only down side I can tell is that they're annoying to harvest in big quantities because of the small thin root sizes. If we can get big a cultivar with big thick roots, we've got the potential for a wonder crop in these troubled times.
Photo credits from Gordon Hillman's website
My plan is thus:
Gather a wide gene pool of silverweed plants from as many places as possible.
Grow these plants and examine their roots for the thickest tubers
At the same time, taste the roots of the other plants to find the "tastiest" or most "palatable" ones
Breed the plants with the thickest tubers to establish a good deep gene pool from which I can harvest seeds and further isolate a set of genes which give the biggest tubers, whilst also crossing in some of the tastiest roots in later generations to ensure the tastiest result
This will need ironing out for the specifics
Allow the resulting final silverweed cultivar to grow to sufficient numbers and distribute to friends and families
Another possible option is to use landrace gardening, where I plant as many different Silverweed plants from all over the world in the same plot, cross everything as much as possible, and then select for traits. This will maximise the initial health of the gene pool, and also coincidentally is much easier and emulates nature. My kind of laziness.
Silverweed takes 2 years to form flowers from which we can obtain seeds, and they are not always self-fertile, so this will take some patience(!)
Where I am now
I am still on the gathering silverweed phase of this plan. I have plants from three different regions in the UK, and I'm hopeful I will get more in the future.
How to get in touch
My Twitter handle is @AnserinaAg but you can always find me here.
Further Reading
The Late Gordon Hillman's entry on Silverweed
A wonderful blog all about uncommon edible tubers
The standard wikipedia entry
A deep dive into the genetics of silverweed
Landrace breeding of plants
Economic Botany Journal on Native Americans consuming silverweed
A nice lady who sent me a sample of Anserina Potentilla
If you like what you’re reading and want to support my continued writing, please consider subscribing so these posts will arrive straight to your inbox. If you’re feeling generous, there are also paid subscription options - this will encourage me to write more, better and deeper content!