Earth-Nut

Earth-Nut, the English name for a plant known botanically as Conopodium denudatum (or Bunium flexuosum), a member of the natural order Umbelliferae, which has a brown tuber-like root-stock the size of a chestnut. It grows in woods and fields, has a slender flexuous smooth stem 2 to 3 ft. high, much-divided leaves, and small white flowers in many-rayed terminal compound umbels. Boswell Syme, in English Botany, iv. 114, says: “The common names of this plant in England are various. It is known as earth-nut, pig-nut, ar-nut, kipper-nut, hawk-nut, jar-nut, earth-chestnut and ground-nut. Though really excellent in taste and unobjectionable as food, it is disregarded in England by all but pigs and children, both of whom appreciate it and seek eagerly for it.” Dr Withering describes the roots as little inferior to chestnuts. In Holland and elsewhere on the continent of Europe they are more generally eaten.

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