Pineappleweed
Growing in dusty gravel
One of the plants that hooked me into all plants, nature, and eventually, this substack, is pineappleweed.
I won’t go into too much detail, this will be a fairly short post. There is plenty of information out there about this very humble plant: Matricaria discoidea, in the daisy family but without the classic white florets.
You’ll find it in the truly terrible conditions; in gravel beds and pathways, high traffic waste ground, muddy puddles that only dry out in the summer.
Likely you’ve walked past it today. It is truly a great pioneer - attempting to heal the land when most plants would keel over.
And this is how I encountered it. I kept walking past a patch when taking my daughter to school and one day decided to look it up on iNaturalist. I read that it emits a pineapple smell when the cone shaped flowers are crushed and this was indeed true. It was such a rush to smell this exotic scent in temperate England. Nowadays, I smile when my daughter tells her friends about it.
My next thoughts turned to cultivation. I had read that it was delicious in a herbal infusion but because it only seemed to grow in areas where canines like to pee, I didn’t tempt fate.
One day, I spotted some on a piece of waste ground and came back later with a spade. After some pretty tough digging in compacted gravel I managed to lever up some of the root ball and potted it up near my shed. The plant promptly withered and I resolved to try again with a bigger spade (or pick axe) next year.
The next year, a few pineappleweeds sprouted in the gaps between the paving slabs but I wasn’t paying attention. Thinking back, I believe they were self sown by that withered plant of yesteryear.
This year gave me a veritable forest.
And I can truly say, yes, the herbal tea is delicious (you don’t need much) - a hint of menthol and strong notes of fragrant chamomile. Good for the stomach, good for the mind.
This plant really does prefer terrible conditions. It ignored a really nice cold compost annual bed next to the paving slabs - slabs that have been suffocating soil for almost 60 years. The soil underneath stinks; I know, I levered up some to make that annual bed.
I don’t think pineappleweed needs domestication, it’s got a perfect niche: gravel dust.
Until next time.