Other Names: Common Cornsalad, Corn Salad, Kuzu Gevregi, Fetticus, Lamb's Lettuce, Lewiston Cornsalad, Loblollie, Mache, Salade de Chanoine, Valerian locusta, White Pot Herb, Feldsalat

Habitat: Annual herb introduced from Europe, now naturalized almost worldwide. Considered a noxious weed by some, as it is invasive in cultivated fields, especially corn fields hence the name Corn Salad. Cultivation: Corn Salad very easily grown, it prefers a rich light soil, and a sunny position but it tolerates most soils and partial shade. If allowed to flower, plants will often maintain themselves by self-sowing, forming a rosette of leaves the first year, and a seed stalk the second. The entire plant has a bright green color is 6 to 12 inches high, and the square succulent stems have a distinctive, opposite forking habit, stem forks and then each new stem forks again in the opposite direction, this continues almost from the root to the very top of the plant. The leaves are opposite and sessile, clasping the stem, oblong and rounded at the tip, slightly serrate and wider at their base, growing at the stem forks in the upper part of the plant and in a rosette at the base of the plant. Flowers are tiny 1/16th to 1/8th inch, light blue to white and arranged in flat clusters of 2, 4, 6, or 8, bracketed by small leaves, atop each forked stem. Flowers bloom from April to June. Gather fresh edible leaves, flowers and stems anytime.

Properties: Corn Salad has been a chosen edible salad herb since ancient times. It has a very mild and delicate flavor, crispy and refreshing when eaten alone or added to a salad. It can also be lightly cooked or blanched, seasoned and eaten as a pot herb. Corn salad is grown extensively in Europe as a salad vegetable, it contains high amounts of Vitamins B1 and C., calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc protein, carbohydrates and is an excellent source of fibber. Used as a medicinal in some countries as a depurative, nervine, refrigerant, anti-scurvy. Some important plant constituent in Valeriana are Arginine, Glycine, Methionine, Molybdenum, Phenylalanine, and Tryptophan, these are being studied for use in pharmaceuticals to fight many forms of cancer, Parkinson's disease, Depression and other mental disorders.

Folklore: Lamb's Lettuce or Corn Salad, was named by Linnaeus, Valeriana Locusta. At one time the plant was classed with the lettuces and called Lactuca agnina, either, as old writers tell us, from appearing about the lambing season, or because it is a favourite food of  lambs. The genus Valerianella means ('little Valerian'). In France under the name of Mâche, Doucette and Salade de Chanoine, and also as Salade de Prêtre, from its being generally eaten in Lent.

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