Good King Henry

Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus) is a plant that grows in wasteland and by fields, it is also known by several other names: Poor Man's Asparagus, Perennial Goosefoot, Lincolnshire Spinach or Markery.

Description
The plant is fairly tall, growing to around 60cm (1ft) with dull green, long, triangular shaped leaves which sometimes turn a red colour.

The flowers appear in tall practically leafless spikes, each are very small (3-5mm) and are green in colour with five sepals.

The seed are a red-green sort of colour.

As Food:
As this plant used to be cultivated as a vegtable it is completly edible. As the plant is a perennial the leaves can be picked to eat from almost continually, cook the leaves like spinach or they can be eaten raw.

The stem can be eaten also, cooked like an asparagus.